Illustrations for the works of Leo Tolstoy for children. Illustrations for Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace” by Alexei Nikolaev

One of the most colorful scenes of Anna Karenina is the description of haymaking, during which Konstantin Levin (whom Lev Nikolaevich, as you know, largely wrote from himself) works in the field along with the men. But Tolstoy glorified physical labor not only through his heroes, but also through his own example. Working in the fields side by side with peasants was not an extravagant lordly hobby for him; he sincerely loved and respected hard physical work.

In addition, Tolstoy, with pleasure and, what is important, with skill, sewed boots, which he then gave to relatives, mowed grass and plowed the land, surprising the local peasants who were watching him and upsetting his wife.

And not with anyone, but with Ivan Turgenev. It is worth saying that Tolstoy in his youth and even in adulthood was very far from the image of a wise and calm old man familiar to us today, calling for humility and lack of conflict. In his youth, the count was categorical in his judgments, straightforward, and sometimes even rude. An example of this is his conflict with Turgenev.

Rumor has it that one of the reasons for the discord was the “love affair” that ensued between Turgenev and Countess Maria Nikolaevna, Tolstoy’s beloved sister. But the final disagreement between them occurred when both writers were visiting the house of Afanasy Fet. Judging by the latter's memoirs, the reason for the squabble was Turgenev's story about his daughter's governess, who, for educational purposes, forced her to repair torn clothes beggars.

Tolstoy thought this manner was too ostentatious, which he told his interlocutor with straightforwardness and fervor. The verbal altercation almost led to a fight - Turgenev promised Tolstoy to “punch him in the face,” and he, in turn, challenged him to a duel. Fortunately, they did not start fighting - Turgenev apologized, Tolstoy accepted them, but a long-term discord ensued in their relationship. Only seventeen years later Turgenev came to Yasnaya Polyana to see Tolstoy, who had become enlightened and no longer so hot-tempered.

In 1882, a population census was held in Moscow. It is interesting that Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy took part in it on a voluntary basis. The count wanted to know the poverty in Moscow, to see how people live here, in order to somehow help the poor townspeople with money and business. He chose for his purposes one of the most difficult and disadvantaged areas of the capital - near the Smolensky market on Protochny Lane, in which flophouses and shelters of poverty were located.

I.E. Repin. Leo Tolstoy in a room under the arches. 1891

In addition to social analysis, Tolstoy also pursued charitable goals; he wanted to raise money, help the poor with work, place their children in schools, and the elderly in shelters. Tolstoy personally visited the night shelters and filled out census cards, and in addition raised the problems of the poor people’s disorder in the press and the city duma. The result was his article “So what should we do?” and “About the census in Moscow” with calls for help and support for the poor.

Over the years, Tolstoy became increasingly obsessed with spiritual quests, and he paid less and less attention to everyday life, striving for asceticism and “simplification” in almost everything. The count engages in hard peasant labor, sleeps on the bare floor and walks barefoot until the coldest weather, thereby emphasizing his closeness to the people. This is exactly how Ilya Repin captured him in his painting, barefoot, wearing a belted peasant shirt and simple trousers.

I.E. Repin. L.N. Tolstoy barefoot. 1901

He described it in the same way in a letter to his daughter: “No matter how this giant humiliates himself, no matter how mortal rags he covers his mighty body, Zeus is always visible in him, from the wave of whose eyebrows the whole Olympus trembles.”

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy plays Russian folk game towns, Yasnaya Polyana, 1909.

Lev Nikolaevich maintained physical vigor and fortitude until his very last days. The reason for this is the count’s passionate love for sports and all kinds of physical exercise, which in his opinion were mandatory, especially for those involved in mental work.

Tolstoy’s favorite discipline was walking; it is known that already at the quite respectable age of sixty years, he made three walking treks from Moscow to Yasnaya Polyana. In addition, the count was fond of speed skating, mastered cycling, horse riding, swimming, and began every morning with gymnastics.

Writer Leo Tolstoy learns to ride a bicycle in former building Manege (magazine "Cyclist" for 1895).

Tolstoy was ardently interested in pedagogy and even arranged his estate in Yasnaya Polyana school for peasant children. It is interesting that a largely experimental approach to teaching was practiced there - Tolstoy did not put discipline at the forefront, but rather supported the theory of free education - children in his lessons sat as they wanted, there was no specific program, but the classes were very fruitful. Tolstoy not only personally taught his students, but also published children's books, including his own ABC.

The conflict between Tolstoy and the Orthodox Church became one of the strangest and saddest pages in the writer’s biography. The last two decades of Tolstoy's life were marked by his final disappointment in the church faith and rejection of Orthodox dogmas. The writer questioned authority official church and was critical of the clergy, insisting on a broader understanding of religion. Thus, his break with the church was a foregone conclusion - in response to public criticism of Tolstoy and a series of publications devoted to the topic of religion, the Synod in 1901 excommunicated him from the church.

Already at the advanced age of 82 years, the writer decided to go wandering, leaving his estate, leaving his wife and children. In a farewell letter to his Countess Sophia, Tolstoy writes: “I can no longer live in the conditions of luxury in which I lived, and I do what old people of my age usually do: they leave worldly life to live in solitude and silence. last days own life".

Accompanied by his personal doctor Dusan Makovitsky, the count leaves Yasnaya Polyana and goes on a wanderings without a specific goal. Having stopped at Optina Pustyn and Kozelsk, he decides to go south to his niece, from where he plans to move further to the Caucasus. But the last journey was cut short as soon as it began: on the way, Tolstoy caught a cold and contracted pneumonia - on November 7, Lev Nikolaevich died in the house of the head of the Astapovo railway station.

Dmitry Nazarov

: https://www.softmixer.com/2013/11/blog-post_9919.html#more

Leo Tolstoy near the terrace of the Yasnaya Polyana house, May 11, 1908, Tula province, Krapivensky u., village. Yasnaya Polyana. Among the many visitors to Tolstoy on the eve of his 80th birthday, the people's teacher from Siberia, I. P. Sysoev, who had previously visited America, came to Yasnaya Polyana. He asked Lev Nikolayevich for permission to photograph him for the Americans. The photographer Baranov, brought by Sysoev, took these photographs on May 11 - the day when Tolstoy was strongly impressed by the report he read in the Rus newspaper about the execution of twenty Kherson peasants. On this day, Lev Nikolayevich dictated into the phonograph the beginning of an article on the death penalty - the initial version of “I Can’t Be Silent.”
Photo by Baranov S.A.

Leo Tolstoy playing gorodki, 1909, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana. In the background on the left is the grandson Ilya Andreevich Tolstoy, on the right is the son of the servant Alyosha Sidorkov. “In my presence,” recalls Valentin Fedorovich Bulgakov, “Lev Nikolaevich, at 82 years old, played gorodki with Alyosha Sidorkov... the son of the old Yasnaya Polyana servant Ilya Vasilyevich Sidorkov. There is a photograph depicting Tolstoy’s “blow”. Of course, he could no longer play for a long time and “seriously”: he just “tried his strength.” 1909
Tapsel Thomas

Leo Tolstoy with his family, 1892, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana. From left to right: Misha, Leo Tolstoy, Lev, Andrey, Tatyana, Sofya Andreevna Tolstaya, Maria. In the foreground are Vanechka and Alexandra.
Photo studio "Scherer, Nabholz and Kº"

Leo Tolstoy riding on Zorka, 1903, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana. Many contemporaries of Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy admired his skill as a rider, including Vladimir Vasilyevich Stasov: “But as soon as he sat down, it’s just a miracle! He will gather himself together, his legs seem to have merged with the horse, his body is a real centaur, he will tilt his head a little, and the horse... just dances and knocks his feet under him, like a fly...”

Lev and Sophia Tolstoy, 1895, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana. The first mention of Tolstoy riding a bicycle was in a letter to his daughter Tatyana Lvovna dated April 16, 1894: “We have a new hobby: cycling. Dad spends hours studying on it, riding and circling along the alleys in the garden... This is Alexei Maklakov’s bicycle, and tomorrow we will send it to him so as not to break it, otherwise this will probably end.”
Photo Tolstaya Sofya Andreevna

Leo Tolstoy with family and friends, including the artist Nikolai Ge, 1888, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana. From left to right are: Alexander Emmanuilovich Dmitriev-Mamonov (son of the artist), Misha and Maria Tolstoy, M.V. Mamonov, Madame Lambert (governess); sitting: Sasha Tolstaya, Sofya Andreevna Tolstaya, Alexander Mikhailovich Kuzminsky (husband of Tatyana Kuzminskaya), artist Nikolai Nikolaevich Ge, Andrey and Lev Tolstoy, Sasha Kuzminsky, Tatyana Andreevna Kuzminskaya (sister of Sofia Andreevna Tolstoy), Mikhail Vladimirovich Islavin, Vera Aleksandrovna Kuzminskaya, Misha Kuzminsky, Miss Chomel (governess to the Kuzminsky children); in the foreground are Vasya Kuzminsky, Lev and Tatyana Tolstoy. During 12 years of friendship with Tolstoy, Ge painted only one picturesque portrait of Tolstoy. In 1890, at the request of Sofia Andreevna Tolstoy, Ge sculpted a bust of Tolstoy - the first sculptural image of the writer, and even earlier, in 1886, he completed a series of illustrations for Tolstoy’s story “How People Live.”
Photo by Abamelek-Lazarev S.S.

Leo Tolstoy playing tennis, 1896, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana. From left to right: Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, Maria Lvovna Tolstaya, Alexandra Lvovna Tolstaya, Nikolai Leonidovich Obolensky (son of Tolstoy’s niece Elizaveta Valeryanovna Obolenskaya, from June 2, 1897 - husband of Maria Lvovna Tolstoy).
Photo Tolstaya Sofya Andreevna

Leo Tolstoy and Maxim Gorky, October 8, 1900, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana. This was the second meeting of writers. “I was in Yasnaya Polyana. I took away from there a huge pile of impressions, which to this day I can’t sort out... I spent the whole day there from morning to evening,” wrote Alexei Maksimovich Gorky to Anton Pavlovich Chekhov in October 1900.
Tolstaya Sofya Andreevna

Leo Tolstoy, land surveyor and peasant Prokofy Vlasov, 1890, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village.
Yasnaya Polyana. Photo Adamson

Leo Tolstoy with his family under the “tree of the poor”, September 23, 1899, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana. Standing: Nikolai Leonidovich Obolensky (son of Tolstoy’s niece Elizaveta Valeryanovna Obolenskaya, from June 2, 1897 - husband of Maria Lvovna Tolstoy), Sofya Nikolaevna Tolstaya (daughter-in-law of Leo Tolstoy, since 1888 wife of his son Ilya) and Alexandra Lvovna Tolstaya. From left to right are sitting: grandchildren Anna and Mikhail Ilyich Tolstoy, Maria Lvovna Obolenskaya (daughter), Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, Sofya Andreevna Tolstoy with her grandson Andrei Ilyich Tolstoy, Tatyana Lvovna Sukhotina with Volodya (Ilyich) in her arms, Varvara Valeryanovna Nagornova (niece of Leo Tolstoy, eldest daughter his sisters Maria Nikolaevna Tolstoy), Olga Konstantinovna Tolstoy (wife of Andrei Lvovich Tolstoy), Andrei Lvovich Tolstoy with Ilya Ilyich Tolstoy (grandson of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy).
Photo Tolstaya Sofya Andreevna

Leo Tolstoy and Ilya Repin, December 17 - 18, 1908, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana. The photograph refers to the last visit to Yasnaya Polyana by Ilya Efimovich Repin, taken at the request of his wife Natalya Borisovna Nordman-Severova. During their almost thirty-year friendship, Tolstoy and Repin were photographed together for the first time.
Tolstaya Sofya Andreevna

Leo Tolstoy on a bench under the “tree of the poor”, 1908, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana. In the background is Sofya Andreevna Tolstaya and four peasant boys.
Photo by P. E. Kulakov

Leo Tolstoy and the peasant woman-petitioner, 1908, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana. Ivan Fedorovich Nazhivin wrote down the words of Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy: “Loving those who are distant, humanity, the people, wishing them well is not a tricky thing... No, you know how to love your neighbors, those you meet every day, who sometimes get boring, They irritate, they interfere, so love them, do good to them!.. The other day I was walking through the park and thinking. I hear some woman walking behind me and asking for something. And the idea I needed for work just came to my mind. “Well, what do you need?” I say impatiently to the woman. “Why are you bothering me?” But it’s good that he came to his senses and recovered now. And sometimes you realize it and it’s too late.”
Bulla Karl Karlovich

Leo Tolstoy, July 1907, Tula province, village. Yasenki. Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was filmed on one of the hot July days of 1907 in the village of Yasenki, where the Chertkovs lived at that time. According to an eyewitness, Bulgarian Hristo Dosev, the photograph was taken after an intimate conversation between Tolstoy and one of his like-minded people. “At the same time,” writes Dosev, “Chertkov prepared his photographic camera in the yard, wanting to take a portrait of L.N. But when he asked him to pose for him, L.N., who almost always peacefully agrees to this, this time did not want to. He furrowed his eyebrows and could not hide his unpleasant feeling. “There is an interesting, important conversation concerning human life, but here we are engaged in nonsense,” he said irritably. But, giving in to V.G.’s requests, he went to stand. Apparently, having tamed himself, he joked with Chertkov. “He keeps shooting! But I will take revenge on him. I’ll take some kind of machine and, when he starts shooting, I’ll douse him with water! And he laughed merrily.”

Lev and Sophia Tolstoy on their 34th wedding anniversary, September 23, 1896, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana
Photo Tolstaya Sofya Andreevna

Leo Tolstoy plays chess with Vladimir Chertkov, June 28 - 30, 1907, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana. On the right you can see the back of the portrait of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, on which the artist Mikhail Vasilyevich Nesterov was working at that time. During his sessions, Tolstoy often played chess. Vladimir Chertkov’s eighteen-year-old son Dima (Vladimir Vladimirovich Chertkov) was one of his most “intractable” partners.
Photo Chertkov Vladimir Grigorievich

Leo Tolstoy with his granddaughter Tanya Sukhotina, 1908, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana. In his diary, Lev Nikolaevich wrote: “If I were given a choice: to populate the earth with such saints as I can imagine, but only so that there would be no children, or with such people as now, but with children constantly arriving fresh from God, “I would choose the latter.”
Chertkov Vladimir Grigorievich

Leo Tolstoy with his family on his 75th birthday, 1903, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana. From left to right are: Ilya, Lev, Alexandra and Sergei Tolstoy; sitting: Mikhail, Tatyana, Sofya Andreevna and Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, Andrey.

Leo Tolstoy has breakfast on the terrace of a house in Gaspra, December 1901, Tavricheskaya province, village. Gaspra. From the diary of Sofia Andreevna Tolstoy: “...it is terribly difficult, sometimes unbearable with his stubbornness, tyranny and complete lack of knowledge of medicine and hygiene. For example, doctors tell you to eat caviar, fish, broth, but he is a vegetarian and this is ruining himself...”
Photo Tolstaya Alexandra Lvovna

Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekhov in Gaspra, September 12, 1901, Tauride province, village. Gaspra. The writers met in 1895 in Yasnaya Polyana. The photo was taken on the terrace of Sofia Vladimirovna Panina’s dacha.
Photo by Sergeenko P. A.

Leo Tolstoy with his daughter Tatyana, 1902, Tauride province, village. Gaspar
Photo Tolstaya Sofya Andreevna

Leo Tolstoy with his daughter Alexandra on the seashore, 1901, Tauride province, village. Miskhor
Photo Tolstaya Sofya Andreevna

Leo Tolstoy and Dushan Makovitsky among patients and doctors of the Trinity District Psychiatric Hospital (talking to a patient who calls himself Peter the Great), June 1910, Moscow province, p. Trinity. Tolstoy became especially interested in issues of psychiatry after meeting in 1897 the famous criminologist and psychiatrist Cesare Lombroso. Living in Otradnoye next to the two best at that time, the Trinity District and Pokrovskaya Zemstvo psychiatric hospitals, he visited them several times. Tolstoy was in the Trinity Hospital twice: on June 17 and 19, 1910.
Photo Chertkov Vladimir Grigorievich

Leo Tolstoy in Yasnaya Polyana, August 28, 1903, Tula province.., village. Yasnaya Polyana
Photo Protasevich Franz Trofimovich

Going to the opening of the People's Library in the village of Yasnaya Polyana: Leo Tolstoy, Alexandra Tolstaya, Chairman of the Moscow Literacy Society Pavel Dolgorukov, Tatyana Sukhotina, Varvara Feokritova, Pavel Biryukov, January 31, 1910, Tula province, Krapivensky u., village. Yasnaya Polyana. The black poodle Marquis belonged to Tolstoy’s youngest daughter Alexandra Lvovna.
Photo Savelyev A.I.

Lev and Sophia Tolstoy and their daughter Alexandra among the peasants of the village of Yasnaya Polyana on Trinity Day, 1909, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana. On the left is Alexandra Lvovna Tolstaya.
Photo by Tapsel Thomas

Leo Tolstoy walks from his house along the “Preshpekt” alley, 1903, Tula province, Krapivensky u., village. Yasnaya Polyana. From the diary of Mikhail Sergeevich Sukhotin, 1903: “Each time I am more and more surprised by the health and strength of L.N. He is getting younger, fresher, stronger. About his former fatal diseases and there is no trace of it... He again acquired his youthful, fast, cheerful gait, very peculiar, with his toes turned outward.”
Photo Tolstaya Alexandra Lvovna

Leo Tolstoy among the peasants of the village of Krekshino, Moscow province, 1909, Moscow province, village. Krekshino. The peasants of the village of Krekshino came with bread and salt to welcome the arrival of Leo Tolstoy. He came out to them wearing a shirt with suspenders outside, since the day was very hot and, according to eyewitnesses, he talked with them for a long time. The conversation turned to land, and Lev Nikolaevich expressed his view of land ownership as a sin, all the evils of which he resolved again through moral improvement and abstinence from violence.
Photo by Tapsel Thomas

Leo Tolstoy in the office of a house in Yasnaya Polyana, 1909, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana. Tolstoy was filmed in his office, in a chair intended for visitors. Lev Nikolaevich sometimes liked to sit in this chair in the evenings, reading a book by the light of a candle, which he placed next to it on the bookcase. The rotating bookcase was given to him by Pyotr Alekseevich Sergeenko. It contained books that Tolstoy would use in the near future and which therefore had to be “at hand.” Pinned to the bookcase is a note: “Required books.”
Photo Chertkov Vladimir Grigorievich

Leo Tolstoy on a walk, 1908, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana
Photo Chertkov Vladimir Grigorievich

Leo Tolstoy tells a tale about a cucumber to his grandchildren Sonya and Ilyusha, 1909, Moscow province, village. Krekshino
Photo Chertkov Vladimir Grigorievich

Leo Tolstoy at the station in Krekshino, September 4 - 18, 1909, Moscow province, village. Krekshino
Unknown author

Leo Tolstoy's departure to Kochety to visit his daughter Tatyana Sukhotina, 1909, Tula province, Tula district, Kozlova Zaseka station. In the last two years of his life, Tolstoy often left Yasnaya Polyana - either to briefly visit his daughter Tatyana Lvovna in Kochety, or to Chertkov in Krekshino or to Meshcherskoye in the Moscow province.
Photo Chertkov Vladimir Grigorievich

Leo Tolstoy, 1907, Tula province, Krapivensky district, village. Yasnaya Polyana. “Not a single photograph, not even portraits painted from him, can convey the impression that was obtained from his living face and figure. When Tolstoy looked closely at a person, he became motionless, concentrated, inquisitively penetrated inside him and as if sucked out everything that was hidden in him - good or bad. At these moments his eyes were hidden behind his overhanging eyebrows, like the sun behind a cloud. At other moments, Tolstoy responded to a joke like a child, burst into sweet laughter, and his eyes became cheerful and playful, leaving thick eyebrows and they shone,” wrote Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky.
Photo Chertkov Vladimir Grigorievich

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a little over twenty years old when he began teaching literacy to peasant children on his estate. He continued to work at the Yasnaya Polyana school intermittently until the end of his life; he worked long and enthusiastically on compiling educational books. In 1872, “Azbuka” was published - a book set containing the alphabet itself, texts for initial Russian and Church Slavonic reading, arithmetic and a teacher’s manual. Three years later, Tolstoy published The New ABC. When teaching, he used proverbs, sayings, and riddles. He composed many “proverb stories”: in each the proverb unfolded in short story with morals. The “New ABC” was supplemented by “Russian Books for Reading” - several hundred works: short stories, retellings of folk tales and classical fables, natural history descriptions and reasoning.

Tolstoy strove for extremely simple and precise language. But it is difficult for a modern child to understand even the simplest texts about ancient peasant life.

So what? The works of Leo Tolstoy for children become a literary monument and disappear from Russian children's reading, the basis of which they were for a whole century?

There is no shortage of modern publications. Publishers are trying to make books interesting and understandable to today's children.

1. Tolstoy, L. N. Stories for children / Leo Tolstoy; [preface V. Tolstoy; comp. Yu. Kublanovsky] ; drawings by Natalia Parent-Chelpanova. - [Yasnaya Polyana]: L.N. Tolstoy Museum-Estate “Yasnaya Polyana”, 2012. - 47 p. : ill.

Children's stories by Leo Tolstoy, illustrated by the Russian artist in exile Natalya Paren-Chelpanova, translated into French were published in Paris by Gallimard in 1936. In the Yasnaya Polyana booklet they are, of course, printed in Russian. There are stories here that are usually included in modern collections and are undisputed in children's reading(“Fire Dogs”, “Kitten”, “Filipok”), and rare, even amazing. For example, the fable “The Owl and the Hare” - how a arrogant young owl wanted to catch a huge hare, grabbed his back with one paw, the other into a tree, and he “rushed and tore the owl apart”. Read on?

What is true is true: Tolstoy’s literary means are strong; The impressions after reading will remain deep.

Natalia Parent’s illustrations brought the texts closer to the little readers of her time: the characters in the stories were drawn as if they were the artist’s contemporaries. There are French inscriptions: for example, “Pinson” on the grave of a sparrow (for the story “How my aunt talked about how she had a pet sparrow - Zhiwchik”).

2. Tolstoy, L. N. Three Bears / Leo Tolstoy; artist Yuri Vasnetsov. - Moscow: Melik-Pashaev, 2013. - 17 p. : ill.

In the same 1936, Yuri Vasnetsov illustrated an English fairy tale retold in Russian by Leo Tolstoy. At first the illustrations were in black and white, but the later colorful version is reproduced here. Fairytale bears Yu. Vasnetsova, although Mikhail Ivanovich and Mishutka are in vests, and Nastasya Petrovna with a lace umbrella, are quite scary. The child understands why “one girl” was so afraid of them; but she managed to escape!

Illustrations have been color corrected for the new edition. You can see the first edition, as well as reprints that differ from one another, in the National Electronic Children's Library (books are protected by copyright, registration is required to view).

3. Tolstoy, L. N. Lipunyushka: stories and fairy tales / Leo Tolstoy; illustrations by A. F. Pakhomov. - St. Petersburg: Amphora, 2011. - 47 p. : ill.- (Library of a junior school student).

Many adults have retained in their memory “The ABC” by Leo Tolstoy with illustrations by Alexei Fedorovich Pakhomov. The artist knew the peasant way of life very well (he himself was born in a pre-revolutionary village). He painted peasants with great sympathy, children - sentimentally, but always with a firm, confident hand.

The St. Petersburg "Amphora" more than once published small collections of stories from L. N. Tolstoy's "ABC" with illustrations by A. F. Pakhomov. This book contains several stories from which peasant children learned to read. Then the fairy tales - “How a man divided the geese” (about a cunning man) and “Lipunyushka” (about a resourceful son who "came out in cotton").

4. Tolstoy, L. N. About animals and birds / L. N. Tolstoy; artist Andrey Brey. - Saint Petersburg; Moscow: Rech, 2015. - 19 p. : ill. - (Mom’s favorite book).

Stories “Eagle”, “Sparrow and Swallows”, “How Wolves Teach Their Children”, “What Mice Are for”, “Elephant”, “Ostrich”, “Swans”. Tolstoy is not sentimental at all. Animals in his stories are predators and prey. But, of course, a moral must be read in a basic story; Not every story is straightforward.

Here is “Swans” - a genuine prose poem.

It must be said about the artist that he painted animals expressively; among his teachers was V. A. Vatagin. “Stories about Animals” with illustrations by Andrei Andreevich Brey, published by Detgiz in 1945, are digitized and available in the National Electronic Children's Library (registration is also required to view).

5. Tolstoy, L. N. Kostochka: stories for children / Leo Tolstoy; drawings by Vladimir Galdyaev. - Saint Petersburg; Moscow: Rech, 2015. - 79 p. : ill.

The book contains mainly the most frequently published and read children's stories by L. N. Tolstoy: “Fire”, “Fire Dogs”, “Filipok”, “Kitten”...

“The Bone” is also a widely known story, but few people are ready to agree with the radical educational method shown in it.

The contents of the book and the layout are the same as in the collection “Stories and Were”, published in 1977. More texts and drawings by Vladimir Galdyaev were in L. N. Tolstoy’s “Book for Children,” published by the Moskovsky Rabochiy publishing house in the same 1977 (the publications, of course, were preparing for the writer’s 150th anniversary). The rigor of the drawing and the specificity of the characters correspond well to Tolstoy's literary style.

6. Tolstoy, L. N. Children: stories / L. Tolstoy; drawings by P. Repkin. - Moscow: Nigma, 2015. - 16 p. : ill.

Four stories: “The Lion and the Dog”, “Elephant”, “Eagle”, “Kitten”. They are illustrated by Peter Repkin, a graphic artist and animator. It is interesting that the lion, eagle, elephant and his little owner depicted by the artist obviously resemble the characters of the cartoon “Mowgli”, the production designer of which was Repkin (together with A. Vinokurov). This cannot harm either Kipling or Tolstoy, but it does make one think about the differences and similarities in the views and talents of the two great writers.

7. Tolstoy, L. N. The Lion and the Dog: a true story / L. N. Tolstoy; drawings by G. A. V. Traugot. - St. Petersburg: Rech, 2014. - 23 p. : ill.

On the flyleaf there is a drawing depicting Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy in London in 1861 and as if confirming: this story is true. The story itself is given in the form of captions to the illustrations.

First line: “Wild animals were shown in London...” An ancient multi-colored, almost fairy-tale Western European city, townspeople and townswomen, curly-haired children - all in a manner that has long been characteristic of the artists “G. A. V. Traugot." Meat thrown into a lion's cage does not look naturalistic (like Repkin's). A lion yearning for a dead dog (Tolstoy honestly writes that she “died”) is drawn very expressively.

I told you more about the book “Biblioguide”.

8. Tolstoy, L. N. Filipok / L. N. Tolstoy; artist Gennady Spirin. - Moscow: RIPOL classic, 2012. -: ill. - (Masterpieces of book illustration).

“Filipok” from “The New ABC” is one of the most famous stories Leo Tolstoy and all Russian children's literature. Figurative meaning The words “textbook” here coincides with direct.

The RIPOL Classic publishing house has already republished the book with illustrations by Gennady Spirin several times and included it in the New Year's gift collection. This “Filipok” was previously published in English (see on the artist’s website: http://gennadyspirin.com/books/). In the drawings of Gennady Konstantinovich there is a lot of affection for the ancient peasant life and winter Russian nature.

It is noteworthy that in “The New Alphabet” behind this story (at the end of which Filipok “he began to speak to the Mother of God; but every word he spoke was wrong") followed by “Slavic letters”, “Slavic words under titles” and prayers.

9. Tolstoy, L. N. My first Russian book for reading / Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy. - Moscow: White City, . - 79 s. : ill. - (Russian books for reading).

"White City" has undertaken a complete publication of "Russian books for reading". The second, third and fourth books were published in the same way. There are no abbreviations here. Stories, fairy tales, fables, descriptions and reasoning are given in the order in which Lev Nikolaevich arranged them. There are no comments on the texts. Illustrations are used instead of verbal explanations. Basically, these are reproductions of paintings, famous and not so famous. For example, to the description of “The Sea” - “The Ninth Wave” by Ivan Aivazovsky. To the discussion “Why does the wind happen?” - “Children running from a thunderstorm” by Konstantin Makovsky. To the story “Fire” - “Fire in the Village” by Nikolai Dmitriev-Orenburgsky. To the story " Prisoner of the Caucasus" - landscapes by Lev Lagorio and Mikhail Lermontov.

The range of ages and interests of readers of this book can be very wide.

10. Tolstoy, L. N. Sea: description / Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy; artist Mikhail Bychkov. - St. Petersburg: Azbuka, 2014. - p. : ill. - (Good and eternal).

Of the books listed, this one seems to belong most to our time. Artist Mikhail Bychkov says: “A few lines by L. N. Tolstoy gave me a wonderful opportunity to draw the sea”. On large-format spreads, the artist depicted the southern and northern sea, calm and stormy, day and night. TO short text Tolstoy made a hand-drawn appendix about all kinds of sea vessels.

The work fascinated Mikhail Bychkov, and he illustrated three stories from Tolstoy’s ABC, uniting them with a fictional trip around the world on a sailing warship. In the story "The Jump" such a journey is mentioned. The story "Shark" begins with the words: "Our ship was anchored off the coast of Africa." The story “Fire Dogs” takes place in London - and the artist painted a Russian corvette flying the St. Andrew’s flag against the backdrop of the construction of the Tower Bridge (built from 1886 to 1894; “ABC” was compiled earlier, but in the same era, especially if viewed from our time) .

The book “Were” was published by the Rech publishing house in 2015. In the spring of 2016, the State Museum of Leo Tolstoy on Prechistenka hosted an exhibition of Mikhail Bychkov’s illustrations for these two children’s books.

“The sea is wide and deep; there is no end in sight to the sea. The sun rises at sea and sets at sea. No one has reached or knows the bottom of the sea. When there is no wind, the sea is blue and smooth; when the wind blows, the sea will stir up and become uneven..."

"Sea. Description"

“...Water from the sea rises in fog; the fog rises higher, and clouds become from the fog. The clouds are driven by the wind and spread across the ground. Water falls from the clouds to the ground. It flows from the ground into swamps and streams. From streams it flows into rivers; from rivers to sea. From the sea again the water rises into the clouds, and the clouds spread across the earth...”

“Where does the water go from the sea? Reasoning"

Leo Tolstoy's stories from "ABC" and "Russian Books for Reading" are laconic, even lapidary. In many ways archaic, in today's opinion. But the essential thing about them is this: what is now rare is not game, serious attitude by the way, a simple, but not simplified attitude towards everything around.

Svetlana Malaya

Artist illustrating worldwide famous work literature, must be ready to die in the writer. When this artist achieves higher truth, you stop noticing the elasticity of his drawing, the thoughtfulness of the composition, the beauty of the color - all this disappears; Having picked up the illustration, you simply exclaim internally: “Lord, Natasha!” “Oh, this is Prince Andrei near Austerlitz!..” “Well, of course, old Bolkonsky!..” The path to this natural recognition lies precisely through the logic of portrait interpretation, through knowledge of details, through the accuracy of composition - drawing - coloring. If the illustration is not a deeply independent work visual arts, you simply won’t be able to watch it, everything in it will bother you: every spot of color, every figure. One must be able to die in a writer... or more precisely, in order to die in a writer, the artist illustrating a book must first of all be born as a completely independent person.

Andrey Nikolaev is one of the best modern illustrators of L. N. Tolstoy. He is the author of the series graphic drawings to “War and Peace”, executed in a virtuoso and strict manner, close to Benoit and the Russian graphic artists of the beginning of the century. While working on color illustrations for the great novel, Nikolaev also tried the path of bright color expression. I tried it, only to throw it away.

Before us is a new series of his works - “War and Peace” in color. Volume one. The drawing is simple and realistic, the compositions are natural and logical, the color scheme is strict. This is the same style in which you should not notice the painting, should not linger on the surface of the picture; after looking, you immediately go into the depths of the great book: into the alleys of Otradny, into the damp snow of Shengraben. However, it is all the more interesting to trace how the artist’s purely pictorial logic allows him to give an independent and consistent reading of the book.

I offer you a short journey through this vernissage in postcards. Let's take just one perspective - color. Not the drawing, not the composition, not the precision of detail, but that decisive component in a color illustration, which could be called coloristic logic.

The series opens with the work “The Salon of Anna Pavlovna Scherer.” How cold! Pearl-gray tones of dresses, walls, mirrors - a deathly, frozen light. The blue of the chairs, the green of the shadows - in all this there is a feeling of some kind of swamp coldness: before us is a ball of the dead, a meeting of ghosts. And in the depths of this balanced kingdom - in contrast - like a flash vital energy, like a blow of blood - the red collar of Prince Andrei, beaten off by the whiteness of his uniform - a drop of fire in this swamp.

This coloristic contrast is developed, elaborated, and enlarged in “Portrait of Prince Andrei.” An icy face painted in gray tones, a thin silhouette against the lead background of the mirror - the prince is forged into the high society world, his thin lips are compressed, nothing can be read on his face, but... what a violent explosion of bright scarlet on white! The scarlet collar and lapels of the prince's white cavalry uniform are the color of life, passion, risk, a complete denial of the swamp deadness. And in this color contrast you already perceive the kink of the eyebrows, the huge eyes, as if directed inward. What passions are driven inside! What a tragedy is lurking.

And this hot red dot is painted with all the colors of life in the painting “Children of Rostov”: a whirlwind of the sun, naive joy - a warm pink bright color, and only the black uniforms of Nicholas and Boris remotely predict war and death in this light whirlwind of life.

“Ball at the Rostovs” is a complete contrast to “Sherer Salon”. There is evening by candlelight, and here evening by candlelight, but here there is a completely different air: warmth, pagan love of life, laughter, naturalness. There is swamp grayness, here there is a thick richness of colors. But both here and there - the illusory nature of life: the war has not yet penetrated it with its tension, the stamp of naivety or illusoryness lies on people who have not yet been awakened by 1812. The feeling of lethargic sleep in the portrait of “Old Prince Bolkonsky” is amazing: the bright riot of foliage is cut off from us by coldly shining glass, the blue of the walls is cold, the gray-blue color of the fur coat in which the retired arrogant aristocrat is dressed is cold, the slippery reflections on the varnished floor are cold - everything like under the glass of an aquarium: cold, emptiness, silence. No, Russia has not woken up yet...

But the test is coming. The palette of the painting “Prince Andrei’s Farewell to his Sister” is hot: the red collar is on fire, the glare of candles is flickering in front of the icons, the white plume on his hat is fluttering - excited, excited coloring - Andrei goes to where everything is burning and raging, to where death and life argue and where the drama of Russia already begins.

Now remember the cover of the series: on the “wide screen” is the suffering face of Kutuzov, and there, behind him, behind him, in the gray and damp Austrian December twilight, are Russian soldiers near weak fires. They are cut off from their homeland, they are drawn into a war that has not yet become Patriotic for them...

And here they are on the march: white teeth sparkle in a smile, white bayonets sparkle, and as if the soldiers are pulled from the outside by one white belt of sword belts, and a new color has already reigned in everything - the smoky color of war, and all the battle scenes are decided in this color scheme: white sparkles , red, fire, green, yellow - through this ragged, shapeless smoke that covers everything. War is interpreted as hard work, as work. In this vein, the theme of “Tushin’s Battery”, and “Attack at Austerlitz”, and “Retreat at Shengraben” was resolved...

And peaceful scenes once again appear in this color accompaniment in a different way: their range has changed slightly. Here is the soft, uncertain, absent-minded coloring in the “Natasha and Sonya” scene. And here is the aggravated deceitfulness of the treacherous, yellow color of lies in the scene “Pierre and Helene.” The cheerful and naive lost their confidence, the self-confident lost their support, the smoke of war seemed to remove the audacity of colors from these subjects... The matter is decided - not here, it is decided - where, breathless, Prince Andrei runs up the mountain with a white and green banner in his hands, there , where the disintegrated white crosses of soldiers’ sword belts appear through a gray veil, where people suffer and die, and where in the smoke of battles the fate of Russia begins to rise to its full height.

And from this thick, ragged kaleidoscope of torn and tangled spots of color intertwined with smoke - life, blood, death, faith, despair - a “monoline” of color stands out like the sound of a trumpet: piercing and pure, oppressive cold blue. "Wounded Prince Andrei on the Pratsen Heights." Look closely at how this purity is born from the smoke that has not yet been dispelled: something was determined in this whirlwind, something became clear. Illusions are broken, and a person returns to himself and sees the sky above him. Contrary to the long-standing tradition of the illustrators of War and Peace, Nikolaev refuses to draw this Austerlitz sky - he does not want the completeness of the drawing to close this infinity, and he cuts off the drawing from above, giving us the opportunity to continue this revealed blue, this open infinity, this path to the future. ; the path of Tolstoy's heroes - to the Battle of Borodino... to the truth... to the Motherland.

Salon of Anna Pavlovna Scherer

Anna Pavlovna's evening was over. spindles with different sides They made noise evenly and incessantly.

Ball at the Rostovs

...Suddenly from the next room we heard several men's and women's feet running towards the door, the crash of a chair being caught and knocked over, and a thirteen-year-old girl ran into the room, wrapping her short muslin skirt around something, and stopped in the middle of the room.

Spiritual service

Above the chair stood the clergy in their majestic shining robes, with long hair, with lighted candles in their hands, and served slowly and solemnly.

Old Prince Bolkonsky

General-in-Chief Prince Nikolai Andreevich, nicknamed in society le roi de Prusse *, from the time he was exiled to the village under Paul, lived constantly in his Bald Mountains with his daughter, Princess Marya, and with her companion, Mlle Bourienne **.

* Prussian king
** Mamzelle Bourrien

Prince Andrei's farewell to his sister

She crossed herself, kissed the icon and handed it to Andrey.
- Please, Andre, for me...
Rays of kind and timid light shone from her large eyes. These eyes illuminated the entire sickly, thin face and made it beautiful.

Song of the Soldiers

The drummer-singer... began a drawn-out soldier's song, which began: "Isn't it dawn, the sun has broken..." and ended with the words: "That, brothers, will be glory for us and Kamensky, our father..." This song was composed in Turkey and was now sung in Austria, only with the change that in place of “with Kamensky the father” the words “Kutuzov the father” were inserted.

Denisov on horseback

Denisov, falling back and shouting something, drove past.

Rostov in battle

- Increase the trot! - a command was heard, and Rostov felt his Grachik giving in with his hindquarters, breaking into a gallop. He guessed his movements in advance, and he became more and more fun... “Oh, how I’ll cut him,” thought Rostov, clutching the hilt of the saber in his hand.

Battery Tushina

In the smoke, deafened by continuous shots that made him flinch every time, Tushin, without letting go of his nose warmer, ran from one gun to another, now taking aim, now counting the charges, now ordering the change and dragging of dead and wounded horses, and shouted to his weak, thin , in a hesitant voice.

Retreat near Shengraben

The cadet was in Rostov. He held the other with one hand, was pale, and his lower jaw was shaking with feverish trembling.

Pierre and Helen

— While seeing off the guests, Pierre remained alone for a long time with Helen in the small living room where they were sitting. He had often been alone with Helen before, in the last month and a half, but had never told her about love. Now he felt that it was necessary, but he could not decide to take this last step.

Natasha and Sonya

- Do you remember him? - After a moment of silence, Natasha suddenly asked. Sonya smiled.
— Do I remember Nicolas?
“No, Sonya, do you remember him enough to remember him well, to remember everything,” Natasha said with a diligent gesture, apparently wanting to attach the most serious meaning to her words. “And I remember Nikolenka, I remember,” she said. - I don’t remember Boris. I don't remember at all...
- How? Don't remember Boris? - Sonya asked in surprise.

Attack at Austerlitz

Prince Andrei and his battalion were already twenty steps from the guns. He heard the incessant whistling of bullets above him, and soldiers constantly groaned and fell to the right and left of him.

The wounded Prince Andrey on the Pratsen Heights

On Pratsenskaya Mountain, in the very place where he fell with the flagpole in his hands, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky lay bleeding, and, without knowing it, he moaned a quiet, pitiful and childish groan... Suddenly he again felt alive and suffering from a burning and tearing pain in the head.
“Where is it, this high sky, which I did not know until now and saw today? - was his first thought. “And I didn’t know this suffering either,” he thought. - Yes, I didn’t know anything until now. But where am I?

Portrait of Prince Andrei

Prince Andrei Bolkonsky was small in stature, a very handsome young man with definite and dry features. Everything about his figure, from his tired, bored look to his quiet, measured step, presented the sharpest contrast with his little, lively wife. Apparently, everyone in the living room was not only familiar to him, but he was so tired of it that he found it very boring to look at them and listen to them.

Leo Tolstoy, as a global figure, was of interest not only to readers and literary scholars, but also to artists. And in the 19th and early 20th centuries there was still a tradition supported by A.S. Pushkin, but started in the Stone Age, accompany artistic image inscriptions with the artist’s thoughts about the character being portrayed. These inscriptions are made implicitly, that is, in small letters with low contrast, which are positioned so that the viewer's attention is not drawn to them.

Table of contents:

• Beginning of the article.

  I'll start the review with famous portrait Lev Nikolaevich, painted by Kramskoy, fig. 1. I.N. Kramskoy worked on the portrait in Yasnaya Polyana from September 5 to mid-October 1873. At the same time he painted two portraits: one for P.M. Tretyakov, another for the family. During this period, Lev Nikolaevich wrote the novel Anna Karenina.

  Rice. 1. Portrait of L.N. Tolstoy, 1873, painted by I.N. Kramskoy

  I borrowed a fragment of this portrait from an article, which, in particular, says: “ In the vast series of portraits of Tolstoy made by many artists, the portrait by Kramskoy is one of the best. The portrait is made in a calm, darkish painterly palette. Tolstoy - in his spacious grayish-blue shirt-blouse, he sits on a spacious chair, with his hands folded on his knees. The composition is extremely simple, the background is calm, neutral, nothing obscures the main thing - Tolstoy’s expressive head with the “peasant” features of his typically Russian face and intelligent, penetrating eyes. Work on the portrait lasted less than a month. And all this time there were lively conversations between Tolstoy and Kramskoy about art and life. Tolstoy’s personality captivated Kramskoy with his determination, energy, will, powerful analytical mind and simplicity appearance: “Looks like a genius!” - said Kramskoy. Tolstoy himself became extremely interested in conversations with Kramskoy and the personality of the artist, watched and studied him with interest. He undoubtedly used the impressions from these conversations and observations when creating the image of the artist Mikhailov in the novel Anna Karenina, which he was working on at that time. The image of Mikhailov reflects Kramskoy’s views and even preserves his appearance».

  

  Rice. 2. My reading of the inscriptions on the portrait of L.N. Tolstoy

  I start reading the inscriptions from the forehead. At the top left you can read the name of the city: 35 ARKONA YARA. Translated into modern Russian, it means the name VELIKY NOVGOROD in the era of Rurik. I believe that since Veliky Novgorod was then the cultural capital of Rus', this name can be understood as a metaphor, that is, as a kind of motto under which Kramskoy painted his portraits.

  On the right side of the upper forehead you can read the number 7387 , and to the right the words: Rus' RODA YEAR. If we were talking about dating “from the creation of the world,” which according to the Byzantine era differs from dating “from the Nativity of Christ” by 5508 years. But if you subtract from given number the number 5508, we get not 1873, but 1879. True, if we apply the era according to Theophilus, 5515 BC. e., then we get 1872. But Kramskoy clearly wrote “RODA YEAR,” that is, he used the Rod dating, which, as it turns out, differs from the dating “from the Nativity of Christ” by 5514 years. I will not comment now on whether I.N. Kramskoy reproduced this dating accurately, but approximately this dating actually corresponds to the generally accepted dating “from the creation of the world.”

  On the left side of the forehead, in a line below, you can read the words: WARRIOR TEMPLE OF MARA. This is also a metaphor: I.N. Kramskoy considers L.N. Tolstoy to the warriors of the military temple of the Russian goddess of change of state, Mary. And just below I read the words: MOSCOW MARY WORLD RURIK YARA. By MOSCOW MARY was meant VELIKIY NOVGOROD , which in Russian historiography was considered the capital of Rurik. Above the right eyebrow I read the words again: TEMPLE OF MARA. During the time of Rurik, it was the most revered temple by believers.

  Next, I move on to reading the implicit inscriptions on the eyebrows. On the right eyebrow you can read the name, A LION, on the left eyebrow - the surname, TOLSTOY. On the right cheek near the nose one can see the written word RUS, then as on the left cheek in the same place - the word MARY. In other words, Leo Tolstoy, according to Kramskoy, was a figure of Rus' Mara, that is, speaking modern language, level figure EURASIA .

  The most interesting inscription was applied by the artist to the hairs of his mustache. Here we read the following signature: TEMPLE OF MARA AND WORLDS OF THE WARRIOR OF THE TEMPLE OF THE CLAND. In other words, the artist understood the constant references to the Temple of Mara as follows: Leo Tolstoy was not so much a Christian as a preacher of Vedism at the level of a priest of the Temple of Mara, but at the same time he was also WARRIOR OF THE TEMPLE OF THE FAMILY .

  I read the last inscription on the beard of Lev Nikolaevich. It says here: RODA AND MAKAZHI MIM. In other words, PRIEST-PREACHER OF THE RUSSIAN VEDIC DEITIES OF THE KIND AND MAKOSH . It follows from this that Russian artists of the late 19th century not only understood Russian Vedism, but also knew about the Vedic tradition of inscribing implicit inscriptions into images. Moreover, they not only knew this, but also continued this tradition, assessing the personality of the person being portrayed, in this case the great Russian writer.

  

  Rice. 3. My reading of the inscriptions on the first image of Lev Nikolaevich

  The first drawing depicting L.N. Tolstoy.

  The illustrated article states: “ The friendship between Repin and Tolstoy began in Moscow in 1880 and lasted 30 years, until the death of the writer. Having already moved from Moscow to St. Petersburg, Repin used every trip to Moscow (and he came here almost every year, sometimes twice a year), to visit Lev Nikolaevich or in Moscow, if the writer lived at that time in his Moscow house, or in Yasnaya Polyana.

  They were introduced by Stasov, who in 1880 wrote to Tolstoy, delighted by his review of Repin: “The fact that you like Repin makes me God knows how much it makes me happy... Repin has the same integral, unadulterated nature, unamused by anything extraneous, as you do. And you don’t see this every day... And also, Repin is smarter and more educated than all our artists.” . Perhaps this is what brought together the two greatest talents of our time. But many things separated them - for example, views on art».

  In Fig. 3 I show a drawing by I.E. Repin " I. Repin. L.N. Tolstoy at work at the round table. 1891». I read on the head of hair what Repin decided to sketch. These are the words: RODA MIM. They exactly correspond to Kramskoy’s opinion. And on the folds of the sleeve of my right arm and on the bottom of my beard I read the words: MASK OF THE WORLD OF MARA SCYTHIA. In other words, IMAGE (L.N. TOLSTOY) (as an inhabitant) of the WORLD OF THE GODDESS MARA OF SCYTHIA .

  Then I move on to another drawing by I.E. Repina.

  

  Rice. 4. My reading of the inscriptions on the second image of L.N. Tolstoy

  The second drawing depicts L.N. Tolstoy.

  « “... Repin writes in his memoirs that in the presence of Lev Nikolaevich he, “as if hypnotized,” could “only obey his will” and that every position expressed by Lev Nikolaevich seemed to him at that moment indisputable - among people close to Tolstoy there was no other person who fought so passionately and stubbornly against Tolstoy’s asceticism, Tolstoy’s non-resistance to evil, Tolstoy’s utilitarian approach to art.”, - the writer K. Chukovsky recalled in his book about Repin.

  Tolstoy was not always favorable towards specific paintings by Repin. “In “Cossacks” he suggested to me many good and very plastic details of the first importance, living and characteristic details... - Repin wrote to Stasov. - And although he didn’t say a single hint, I realized that he imagined the “Cossacks” completely differently and, of course, immeasurably higher than my scribbles.”

  However, Repin's disputes with Tolstoy did not prevent them from deeply loving each other. Each new meeting two great people pleased them both, strengthened their mutual affection» .

  The second drawing is titled " Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy reading. 1891", rice. 4. Here on the pillow you can read the inscription: ROD MASK, which, apparently, from the point of view of I.E. Repin should have meant IMAGE OF THE GOD OF THE ROD . True, he, without engaging in deeper observations, apparently did not know that the phrase MASK OF KIND means: A PERSON IN A STATE OF ANABIOSIS, for example, in a state of LETHRAGIC SLEEP, which, thank God, did not happen to Lev Nikolaevich.

  And on the upholstery of the sofa, on its back, which is visible above the figure of L.N. Tolstoy, you can read the words: FACE OF THE FAMILY AND TEMPLE OF MAKAZHI. In other words, I.E. To Repin, the figure of the Russian writer was reminiscent, on the one hand, of the FACE OF THE GOD OF THE FAMILY, and on the other hand -THE FACE OF A MAN initiated into the sacramentsTHE MOST ANCIENT GODDESS OF THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE - MAKOSH .

  

  Rice. 5. My reading of the inscriptions on the third image of L.N. Tolstoy

  The third drawing depicting L.N. Tolstoy.

  « Their friendship also served a great service for Russian art - Repin created 12 portraits, 25 drawings, 8 sketches of Tolstoy’s family members and 17 illustrations for Tolstoy’s works in oil - and watercolor, and pen, and pencil; in addition, Repin sculpted three busts of Lev Nikolaevich» .

  Repin about Tolstoy.

  “A venerable man with drooping eyebrows, concentrates everything in himself and with his kind eyes, like the sun, illuminates everything. No matter how this giant humiliates himself, no matter what mortal rags he covers his mighty body, Zeus is always visible in him, from the wave of whose eyebrows the whole Olympus trembles.” .

  On the third draft I.E. Repin Lev Nikolaevich is depicted reading some sheets of paper, perhaps the manuscript of one of his works. In this sketch I can only read the inscription on the hair of the head. Here I read the words: MARY TEMPLE MIM. I believe that this is how Repin caught, felt with a sixth sense, the imminent death of Lev Nikolaevich. And he signed it like this: LEV NIKOLAEVICH AS A PRIEST OF THE GODDESS OF DEATH .

  Finally, I read the inscriptions on the sculpted bust by I.E. Repin, fig. 6.

  

  Rice. 6. My reading of the inscriptions on the sculptural bust of L.N. Tolstoy

  Sculptural bust with the image of L.N. Tolstoy.

  « The final stage of this great and long-term friendship was Repin’s telegram to Sofya Andreevna on the day of Lev Nikolaevich’s death: “It is finished. I grieve for you, but his spirit lives on. Hearts of truth are free to mourn sincerely. The arrogant mercenaries have been eliminated, thank God.”

  The very word “It is accomplished” meant that Repin had long assumed that Lev Nikolayevich’s days were numbered.

  Having examined the drawings of I.E. Repin, I decided to see what exactly he depicted on the sculptural bust made of plaster, created in 1891. First I read the inscriptions on the mustache: on the left - MIM AND, on right - MASK. This sentence is started but not finished. Next I read the words on the top of the beard: MARY TEMPLE, and here it’s too early to put an end to it. And finally, on the middle part of his beard, Repin depicted the words: YARA MASK MIMA YARA ROD. In modern Russian this meant: LIFETIME IMAGE OF THE PRIEST YAR ROD AS A PRIEST OF THE GODDESS OF DEATH . Perhaps Repin wanted to draw attention to the fact that he portrayed Lev Nikolayevich as no longer completely healthy.

  As we see, Ilya Efimovich Repin spoke about Lev Nikolaevich not only orally, but also in writing - in his works of art.

  

  Rice. 7. Tolstoy at the piano. Drawing by P.I. Neradovsky

  Drawing by P.I. Neradovsky.

  The book says: " Tolstoy said that music touched him very much, to the point of tears, and his heart sank. “Other arts: poetry, sculpture, painting, not so».

  In December 1893, M. A. Olsufiev invited the pianist D. S. Shor, me and other acquaintances to go to the Tolstoys (in Khamovniki). Mikhail Adamovich wanted Shor, who spent the summer of this year in Nikolskoye, to play there a lot and with great success, to now play for Lev Nikolaevich.

  We arrived at Tolstoy’s in the evening. Everyone was sitting in a small living room. The conversation soon turned to music. Lev Nikolaevich spoke most of all. He especially vehemently denied music and its role in modern society. He gave one proof after another of its uselessness.

  — Contemporary music“, he said, “it’s like a stray horse that rushes around the backyard, kicks a goat, knocks down fences... I would appreciate music if it served people, helped them in hard work. Now, if, for example, an orchestra played in a field during summer field work. I am reminded of how purposeful music is when a band plays on a hike. Here the purpose of music is justified by the benefits it brings. When the military band starts playing, the soldiers' fatigue disappears and they continue their march with renewed vigor. The effect of song and music on weary people I cannot deny».

  In Fig. 7 Lev Nikolaevich is actually visible at the piano. To read the inscriptions, I turned the image of the head in color. And then I read, firstly, the words: 35 ARKONA, that is, VELIKIY NOVGOROD and then the words MARY TEMPLE and clarification: MARY 35 TEMPLE. In other words, we are talking about the temple of St. Sophia of Novgorod, which was once the military temple of Mary during the era of Rurik.

  And below, on the beard under the ear, you can read the words in direct color: MARA MASK. They mean either IMAGE OF THE DECEASED , which is unacceptable in this case, or IMAGE OF A SICK PERSON . Note that a little later a similar diagnosis was made by I.E. Repin.

  Similar inscriptions are repeated several more times, so I do not consider them.

  This way you can get an idea of ​​what exactly was noted various artists, drawing Lev Nikolaevich from life.

  

  Rice. 8. Drawing by L.N. Tolstoy to the book by J. Verne and my reading of the inscriptions

  Drawings by L.N. himself Tolstoy.

  To identify the drawings of L.N. himself. Tolstoy, I turned to the website of his foundation. The foundation provides the following information about itself: “Department of Manuscript Collections State Museum L.N. Tolstoy was founded in 1911 simultaneously with the museum itself. This is the largest repository of the handwritten heritage of L.N. Tolstoy in the world. The basis of the manuscript collections are the manuscripts of L.N. Tolstoy (71,487 documents). In addition to the writer’s own fund, the GMT stores another 75 personal funds and funds of institutions associated with his name. In total, the collection of manuscripts contains more than 300 thousand items.”

  The collection contains an illustration for the novel “Around the World in 80 Days” by J. Verne. Let me remind you that “The hero of the novel, Phileas Fogg, bet that he would be able to go around Earth from west to east in no more than 80 days, which was at that time the maximum possible speed, taking into account the technical capabilities of transport. Fogg's journey begins in England, then he goes to France, Italy, Egypt, India, China, Japan, America. Along the way he encounters many dangers; In India, Phileas Fogg and his servant Passepartout save the beautiful Auda, who is about to be burned alive along with the body of her late husband. Subsequently, Mrs. Auda becomes Fogg's wife. Detective Fix also interferes with travel"(Wikipedia).

  The picture shows the final scene: « That evening all five of our gentleman's partners assembled long before nine o'clock in the evening in the great salon of the Reform Club. Both bankers - John Sullivan and Samuel Fallentine, engineer Andrew Stewart, Gautier Ralph, one of the administrators of the Bank of England, and brewer Thomas Flanagan - all waited with obvious anxiety" - Therefore, L.N. Tolstoy depicted these five debaters on the left.

  It remains to determine who is who. After all, if it were possible to read the names of the characters by the strokes of the signatures, then one would understand that Lev Nikolaevich, being able to write the names of the characters in his own drawings, was even more able to read the inscriptions of other people drawn into the portraits. The simplest guess that can be made is that the leftmost character is the first on the list, that is, John Sullivan.

  To identify this, I first read the hair on the character's head. They, being divided into letters, really vaguely resemble the name JOHN. To read the surname, I first draw the ear squiggle, then read the neck strokes, add the sideburn strokes, turning them 90 degrees to the left so that they are almost horizontal, and attach the “H”-shaped nostril stroke. This composition is really quite reminiscent of the signature SELLIVAN. Is the second character Samuel Fallentine?

  In this right profile, the outline of the back of the head can indeed be mistaken for the letter “C”, and the strokes to the right can be mistaken for the letter “A”. The bottom of the hair forms the letter “M”, above and to the left one can distinguish the letter “U”, at the bottom of the hair on the right - the letter “E”, to the left - the letter “L” framed by other strokes and to the right, the leftmost stroke of the sideburn is taken for “b” . Indeed, it turns out the name SAMUEL, which was written exactly like that in Russian orthography of the 19th century. But there are no strokes on the face to indicate the character’s last name.

  However, these strokes can be found on his upper torso. From his checkered scarf on the right shoulder you can borrow the letter “F”, and to the right and above you can find a large letter “A”, three letters “LLE” can be identified to the left of the image of a bow tie, other strokes there can be taken for the letter “H”, a knot the point of this composition is behind the letter “T”, to the left of it you can see the letter “I”, and read the letter “N” again. The result is a surname signature: FALLENTIN.

  The following two characters are placed at equal distances from John Sullivan, but following the usual order, you should start reading from the top. It must be engineer Andrew Stewart. On the hair of his head, reading from top to bottom and left to right, you can read the name: ANDREW. As for the surname, to the right of the ear one can distinguish two medium-sized letters, “ST”. The remaining letters "YUART" are read on the mustache and beard. It turns out STEWART.

  Then I move on to consider the extreme right-wing character, assuming that he is precisely Gautier Ralph, because the brewer must be fat, and you can’t call him fat. But the name GAUTIER, I believe, is not written on the head, but on the strokes on the right armpit. And indeed, there are flourishes here. Forming a signature GAUTIER. But I can read the last name on the strokes of the face: first the hair on the back of the head, the letters “RA”, then near the ear, “L”, and finally the ear itself, “F”. The result is a surname RALPH.

  As for the head of the remaining brewer, I enlarge it 1.5 times in size in order to read the small strokes. I read the first four letters “BEER” on the back of my head, but not in the top, but in the second line. But on the first line I read three letters, “VAR”. It turns out the name of the profession, BREWER.

  To the right on the second line I read two letters, “TO”. And on the line above and even further to the right you can read two more letters “MA”. The last letter "S" is read above the letter "M" on the first line. A name is formed THOMAS. Then the letter “F” is highlighted on the sideburn on the second line, the letters “LE” are like the top of the letter “F”, the letters “NA” are to the left of and below the letter “F”, the letters “GA” are to the right of the letter “F”, and the last letter "N" is under these two letters. It turns out the surname FLENAGAN.

  Thus, all five disputants who were awaiting the arrival of the main character Phileas Fogg were signed. He is shown in the doorway in the foreground. If you take into account not only his head, but also some space on the right, you can read the letters “F” on the back of the head, “I” a little to the left, “L” a little lower, “E” to the right of the head, “AS” under the letter “E” " It turns out the name PHILEAS. As for the surname, it is read on the strokes below the head: FOGT.

  There is no point in reading the captions for the other characters, because the picture is extremely clear: Lev Nikolaevich depicted the characters in the form of the final scene, and signed each one. In other words, he gave an explanation of the persons, but not their state of health or their resemblance to mythological or religious characters, not their connections with the temples of this or that area. However, the 13 words already read show that Lev Nikolaevich was able not only to give a psychological description of each character in the form of a drawing, but was also able to write his name and surname into the features of each of them, and in one case, also his profession.

  

  Rice. 9. Drawings by L.N. Tolstoy on a sheet of manuscript "Anna Karenina"

  It would also be interesting to see if Lev Nikolaevich signed his characters while working on any novel. This possibility also exists, because there is a sheet from the manuscript of the novel “Anna Karenina” with images of some people. Unfortunately, this same sheet contains algebraic formulas, triangles, and a parallelogram, which are related to mathematics. Perhaps it was a sheet from some kind of math notebook.

  Let me remind you that, according to Wikipedia, « "Anna Karenina"(1873-1877; magazine publication 1875-1877; first book edition 1878) - a novel by Leo Tolstoy about the tragic love of a married lady Anna Karenina and a brilliant officer Vronsky against the backdrop of a happy family life noblemen Konstantin Levin and Kitty Shcherbatskaya. A large-scale picture of the morals and life of the noble environment of St. Petersburg and Moscow in the second half of the 19th century, combining the philosophical reflections of the author’s alter ego Levin with advanced psychological sketches in Russian literature, as well as scenes from the life of peasants" And here the question arises: who exactly is drawn? close-up: Vronsky, Karenin or Levin? Judging by its largest dimensions, it is the main character of the novel. To answer it, I first clear this portrait of the layers of images of other characters, Fig. 10 on the right.

  

  Rice. 10. My reading of L.N.’s signatures Tolstoy to characters

  Next I start reading. Right ear and I read cheekbones like letters SE, right eyebrow - like a word SAMY, left eyebrow - like a word HUSBAND, hair on the right at the level of the nose: the letters "KO", the hollow under the nose - the letter "P", the left line of the upper and lower lips - the letter "E", the right sideburn - the letters "NIN". Together they form a surname, KORENIN. It is undoubtedly speaking, derived from the word ROOT, which means in metaphorical terms that main character- this is the root of the Russian nation. However, since surnames, which in history were often written down by illiterate scribes, were distorted during recording, the novel already appears as KARENIN.

  Compared to the main figure, the other characters look a bit small. Thus, a woman shown from the frontal view slightly lifts her fluffy skirt with her hands - apparently, this is L.N. Tolstoy conveyed her coquetry. And she smiles at the same time. You can read the word on her voluminous hairstyle ANNA. To her right, a long-nosed man with a cut-in head was staring at her. Although it is easy to guess who it is, nevertheless, you can read: on the crest - the letter “B”, a little to the right - the letter “R”, on the neck - the letters “ON”, on the back of the neck - the letter “C”, on the top parts of the scarf around the neck - the letter “K”, to the right - two letters “I”. Together they form a surname VRONSKY.

  The scene of being thrown under a train is also depicted: the woman is drawn in the right profile, her arms are leaning on the embankment above the rails, her legs are raised. The intersection of lines above her head forms the phrase ON MORPHINE, which explains the absurd act of suicide of this quite wealthy and accomplished woman. On the profile of her head, and also given the first letter "B" of her hair and the last letter "A" above her chin, you can read the word GUILT. And on the head in three lines it is signed: VRONSKY.

  So the main idea is outlined. Next come the minor characters. Of these, I only consider the dancing couple, where I read the signature on the woman’s neck DOLLY(OBLONSKAYA), Anna’s brother’s wife is Stiva, and on the man’s head is the name STEVE(OBLONSKY), the name of Anna's brother. There is no point in considering the rest of the minor characters. As we can see, Lev Nikolaevich imagined not only the appearance, but also, to a certain extent, the character of his heroes. They are signed not only by name, but also by deed - the signature of VIN VRONSKY. ON MORPHINE.

  

  Rice. 11. Tolstoy L.N. Plan of the house in which L.N. Tolstoy was born. 1898

  You can also look at the house plan of 1894, drawn by Lev Nikolaevich’s hand on paper with a pencil. Noteworthy are the straight lines drawn not with a ruler, but by hand. Like artists, the lines are slightly concave, but there are also perfectly straight segments; transverse lines are strictly perpendicular. Each room is signed. Here we see explicit inscriptions, whereas in the previous figures we see implicit ones. From consideration of Fig. 11 it is clear that Leo Tolstoy was able to make both explicit drawings with signatures and more complex images of people, where their appearance conveyed their properties, inscribing implicit (more precisely, semi-explicit) letters of signatures into the details of the face or clothing. In other words, L.N. Tolstoy not only knew how to draw, he knew how to create a visual form literary heroes, signing them.

  Discussion.

  In my book I showed that drawings with captions were made not only by A.S. Pushkin, but also writers before him, for example, Simeon of Polotsk (1675), Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin, Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky; Pushkin's comrade-in-arms - A.A. Delvig, Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol, younger contemporaries Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov and I.S. Turgenev. In a brief summary reviewing their drawings, I noted: “ The tradition of writing Slavic, or more precisely, Russian words, organized into complete (simple uncommon) sentences, has existed, at least in a country like Germany, for at least centuriesXII-XIII. The reason for this, it seems, was that these lands were originally inhabited by the Slavs, who settled around Rus' and called their lands Porus. The process of linguistic development among these Slavic tribes (Sklavins, Pomors, Lusatians) went so far that they were forced to use the language and graphics of the most ancient Slavic people, the Russians. In order to conduct a dialogue with the Slavs, Germanic tribes were also included in this process, which later united into the states of both Germany proper and Scandinavia, England and France. This is how one can explain the long period of existence of Russian secret writing among the Germanic peoples, permeating the very different type their inscriptions, ranging from epitaphs and scientific works to literary pamphlets» .

  As for the work of Russian writers, I spoke about it like this: « From this study it is clear that Pushkin was not only not the founder, but not even one of the early followers of the graphic trend that had developed many centuries before, mainly in the accusatory direction. Moreover, it turned out that he stood rather at the very end of it, flashing brightly during the two decades of the 20s and 30sXIXcentury, while in the 40s this tradition disappeared both in Western Europe and in Russia» . However, here I was somewhat mistaken: this tradition did not disappear altogether, but rather declined to a certain minimum. Thus, in the works of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, I was able to find only two sheets of drafts with drawings. Perhaps many writers' foundations do not strive to make popular the drawings of the authors in whose honor they were created.

  In Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy’s drawings one can see a desire not so much for an accurate description of the characters’ appearance, but rather for conveying their inner essence. This is, so to speak, psychological portraits, which simultaneously convey both exact names and surnames, and sometimes the main actions with a signature of their essence.

  In this sense, Lev Nikolaevich, in relation to his creative laboratory, is moving closer to Alexander Sergeevich, who made drawings not after, but before writing poetic lines, receiving the first elaboration of the plot in a pictorial sketch.

  Thus my research fine arts L.N. Tolstoy was a continuation of a similar study of the work of A.S. Pushkin. But at the same time, I was also engaged in research into the visual arts of various European artists, most of all - Albrecht Durer. I wrote about him: « Most main conclusion, What can be done about the life of this man, whose life was limited to only 57 years - he was not just a painter and engraver, but a real thinker, mime Yara, a man who could convey his thoughts not only through metaphorical pictorial means, but also superbly write down his judgments V visual subjects. He lived in one of the secondary Arkonas, in Nuremberg, and was a typical figure in the era of the secondary Arkonas». At that time, I had not yet identified the number of the secondary Arkona.

  

  Rice. 12. Identification of the number of the secondary Arkona and the dating of Nuremberg

  The number of the secondary Arkona can be identified on the same image of Nuremberg, which was presented in my article. This - 09 ARKONA YARA. And the buildings in the very center of the city also offer dating: 09 YEAR OF YAR.

  When recalculated into our usual chronology, this forms a date 865 A.D.. True, the artists were not interested in the dating of the cities - only the number of Arkona, which we note in Kramskoy, and Repin, and even Neradovsky. However, all of them have only one Arkona - No. 35, that is, VELIKY NOVGOROD as the cultural capital of Rus'. The mention of this city in the image of Lev Nikolaevich is evidence that these artists ranked the great Russian writer among the most respected Russian citizens since the times of Ancient Rus'.

  Generally speaking, the name of cities not by name, but by Arkona number is a tribute to the Holy Rus' of Rurik. I have not yet been able to associate the numbering with all 35 secondary Arkons of Yar, but I was able to understand most of the names as certain numbers. I present this deciphered list in Fig. 13, which also indicates what year Yar is in this city was founded and on what date I was able to establish it.

  

  Rice. 13. List of secondary Arkon Yar

  I wonder what words Albrecht Durer wrote in Russian into his paintings? - So, in the self-portrait of 13-year-old Durer, he wrote the words: ALBRECHT DURER, YOUTH OF YAR Rus' TEMPLE 9 ARKONA YAR. And in the self-portrait of 23-year-old Durer he wrote the words: YARA MIM TEMPLE YARA OF ALL Rus' YARA. SCYTHIA AND 9 ARKONA YAR. Engraving “Saint Jerome in his cell”: MIM OF YAR TEMPLE IN ARKONA YAR, 535 YAR. Painting "Adoration of the Magi"; some characters are signed: SE SKOLOT YARA or ISA KRESEN YARA.

  I believe that it was in this spirit that the artists signed the portraits of Lev Nikolayevich. From this observation we can conclude that Russian artists of the 19th century, peering at the paintings and engravings of their Western European predecessors, not only grasped their composition, color scheme, character types, etc., but also noticed Russian words inscribed in the paintings, conveying the place and the time of creation, the names of the characters and some personal notes. This is what we observed in the images of Leo Tolstoy, who was compared with the priest of the god Rod in the first place.

  Conclusion.

  The study of images of writers and artists from the point of view of epigraphy is very interesting and leads to a number of unexpected discoveries. Of course, it will continue.

  Literature.

1. Chudinov V.A. Secret writing in the brilliant drawings of A.S. Pushkin. - M. “Tradition”, 2015. - 608 p., ill.
2. I.N. Kramskoy. Portrait of L.N. Tolstoy, 1873