Military service of Tolstoy in the Caucasus. Participation in the heroic defense of Sevastopol.

In 1848-1851, rural solitude alternated with periods of noisy, as Tolstoy himself defined, "disorderly" life in the capital - in Moscow, in St. Petersburg. The young man was received in high society, attended balls, musical evenings, and performances. Everywhere he was received affectionately, as the son of worthy parents, of whom a good memory was preserved. In Moscow, Lev Nikolayevich visited the family of the Decembrist P. I. Koloshin, whose daughter Sonechka he was in love with in childhood. Under the name of Sonechka Valakhina, she is depicted in the story "Childhood".

Literary pursuits increasingly attracted Tolstoy, he conceived a story "from gypsy life", but scattered secular life interferes with concentrated work. Dissatisfaction with himself, the desire to drastically change his life, to change the empty chatter of secular living rooms for a real business led him to a sudden decision to leave for the Caucasus.

Nikolai Nikolaevich, returning to the regiment, invited his brother to go with him, and they set off. Tolstoy recalled this trip as "one of better days own life". From Saratov to Astrakhan, they sailed along the Volga: “... they took a kosovushka (large boat), put a tarantass into it and, with the help of a pilot and two rowers, went somewhere by sail, where by oars downstream the water.”

For the first time he observed the nature of the southern steppes and their inhabitants - the Kirghiz, read a lot on the road. May 30, 1851 Tolstoy arrived in the Cossack village on the left bank of the Terek River - Starogladkovskaya. An artillery brigade was located here, in which Nikolai Nikolayevich served. Here began the military service of Lev Nikolaevich. The daguerreotype (a photographic image on a silver plate) dates back to this time, depicting the Tolstoy brothers.

Tolstoy first participated in hostilities as a volunteer (volunteer), then successfully passed the fireworks exam and was enlisted as an ensign, that is, a junior artillery officer, for military service. Independent in everything, he at all costs wanted to determine his life path himself, choosing the difficult service of an artillery officer. Characteristically, he refused a letter of recommendation to the governor of the Caucasus, Prince M. S. Vorontsov, which was intended to be written by an old friend of the Tolstoy family, their relative A. I. Gorchakov. Tolstoy simply left without saying goodbye to the old prince.

Military service in the Caucasus in those days was dangerous: there was a war with detachments of mountaineers, who united the waters under the leadership of Shamil. Once (it was in 1853) Tolstoy was almost captured by the Chechens. when their detachment moved their fortress Vozdvizhenskaya to Groznaya.

Under Tolstoy there was a very frisky horse, and he could easily gallop away. But he did not leave his friend Sado Miserbiev, a peaceful Chechen whose horse lagged behind. They successfully fought back and rode to Groznaya for reinforcements.

In the officer society, which was not distinguished by high spiritual interests, Lev Nikolaevich felt lonely. He was more attracted to the soldiers, in them he was able to appreciate the simplicity, kind heart, stamina and courage. But the free life of the Cossacks was especially attractive to him. He made friends with the old Cossack hunter Epifan Sekhin, listened to and wrote down his stories, Cossack songs. The character traits of Epifan Sekhin are captured in the image of Uncle Broshka in The Cossacks (the story began in the Caucasus, finished in 1862).

Military service could not occupy Tolstoy entirely. A feeling of confusion, dissatisfaction with himself does not leave him in the Caucasus either. On his birthday, August 28, 1852, Tolstoy writes in his Diary: “I am 24 years old, and I have not done anything yet. I feel that it is not for nothing that for eight years now I have been struggling with doubt and passions. But what am I assigned to? It will open the future." It so happened that the next day he received a letter from N. A. Nekrasov from St. Petersburg, containing praise for the manuscript of his first completed story, Childhood.

In the Caucasus, Tolstoy made his own top choice in life - he became a writer. “Remember, kind aunt, that you once advised me to write novels; so I listened to your advice - my studies, which I tell you about, are literary. I don’t know if what I am writing will ever appear, but this work amuses me,” Tolstoy wrote from the Caucasus to Yasnaya Polyana to Tatyana Alexandrovna Yergolskaya. He conceived the novel "Four Epochs of Development", in which he wanted to depict the process spiritual growth a person, “sharply identify the characteristic features of each epoch of life: in childhood, warmth and fidelity of feeling; in adolescence skepticism, in youth the beauty of feelings, the development of vanity and self-doubt.

In the Caucasus, the first part of the planned novel, Childhood, was written; later Boyhood (1854) and Youth (1856) were created; the fourth part - "Youth" - remained unwritten.

Penetratingly, subtly and accurately, the writer opens the world of childhood in his story. Before us is an artistic study of the formation of the human soul. Creating images of the heroes of the story, the writer used his personal impressions and experiences, but the story is only partly autobiographical. In the images he created, the typical was concentrated, which is characteristic of a realistic depiction of life. No wonder the author objected to the title "The Story of My Childhood", under which the story was published in Sovremennik. He claimed that he wrote not only about his childhood, but about what is in the childhood of every person.

Therefore "Childhood" is immortal. It is interesting and important to successive generations of readers around the world. Tolstoy was able to reveal how in a stream of various, sometimes fleeting impressions of being, the human in a person crystallizes. In this process, he noted an essential side: a good influence on the formation of the children's soul of people from the people. With what warmth and love, along with the image of Maman, the image of the old housekeeper Natalia Savvishna is depicted.

Servants in the Irtenevs' house, other people from the people with their simplicity and sincerity of feelings are closer to children than the society of the living room, where selfishness and falsehood are hidden under well-mannered manners.

Thus, already in Tolstoy's first work, the theme of opposing the people's and the master's life arises, and the democratic orientation of his work is clearly revealed.

In the Caucasus, stories were written about the everyday life of the army - "Raid", "Cutting down the forest." In them, truthfully, with great warmth, the writer described the images of Russian soldiers, their unostentatious courage, devotion to military duty.

When in 1853 the war began between Russia and the combined military forces of England, France and Turkey, Tolstoy filed a petition to be transferred to active army, as he himself later explained, "out of patriotism." He was transferred to the Danube army, and he participated in the siege Turkish fortress Silistria.

Realizing the historical significance of the events taking place before his eyes, Tolstoy wrote in his Diary: "... Russia must either fall or be completely transformed." The defeats of the Russian army made it obvious to him the need for decisive and rapid changes in the entire way of social life in Russia.

The Caucasus played an important role in the development of Leo Tolstoy as a writer. A short period of Tolstoy's life passed here: two and a half years. But it was in the Caucasus that the first literary works were created and much of what was written later was conceived.

Being already a well-known writer, he said that, while living in the Caucasus, he was lonely and unhappy, and that “here he began to think in a way that only once in a lifetime do people have the power to think.” At the same time, Tolstoy calls the Caucasian period "a painful and good time", noting that he never, either before or after, reached such a height of thought.
“And everything that I found then will forever remain my conviction,” he later wrote.

But the beginning of everything 1851. Lev Nikolayevich was in his 23rd year. It was a time of scattered life in the circle of high-society youth. Tolstoy admitted that "he lived very carelessly, without service, without employment, without purpose." Deciding to put an end to all this, he goes to the Caucasus with his brother Nikolai Nikolaevich, who served in the artillery. His twentieth brigade stood in the middle of the last century on Terek under Kizlyar.

The brothers went down the Volga from Saratov through Kazan and arrived in Astrakhan on May 26, 1851.

And then three days of travel by post, that's the Caucasus.

Mountains... Who has not experienced a feeling of joy, delight when meeting with them!

Tolstoy conveyed his feelings experienced at a meeting with the majestic nature of the Caucasus through the perception of the hero of the story. "Cossacks" Venison.

“Suddenly he (Olenin. - A.P.) saw pure white masses with their delicate outlines and a bizarre, distinct aerial line of their peaks and the distant sky. And when he realized all the distance between him and the mountains and the sky, all the immensity of the mountains, and when he felt all the infinity of this beauty, he was afraid that this was a ghost, a dream. He shook himself to wake up. The mountains were the same.
"Now it has begun," a solemn voice seemed to tell him. And the road, and the line of the Terek visible in the distance, and the villages, and the people - all this now seemed to him no longer a joke. Look at the sky and remember the mountains. He will look at himself, at Vanyusha, and again the mountains. Here are two Cossacks on horseback, and the guns in the cases are evenly wound behind their backs, and their horses are mixed with bay and gray legs, and the mountains ... Behind the Terek one can see the smoke in the village; and the mountains... The sun rises and shines on the Terek, visible from behind the reeds; and the mountains ... A cart is coming from the village, women are walking, beautiful women, young; and the mountains... Abreks roam the steppe, and I'm going, I'm not afraid of them, I have a gun and strength, and youth; and the mountains...

Tolstoy, like his hero, left Moscow with a joyful feeling. He is young, full of strength and hope, although he already knew a lot of disappointments. He does not know where to apply his strength. Overwhelmed by such a rush of activity, which only happens in youth, he goes to the mysterious for him, unknown to the Caucasus. There, precisely there, he will begin a new, joyful, free life. May 30, 1851 the Tolstoy brothers arrived in the village Starogladkovskaya.
"How did I get here? Do not know. What for? Too, ”Lev Nikolayevich wrote in the same day in the evening in his diary.

The village of Starogladkovskaya, which was part of the Kizlyar district, is located on the left bank of the Terek, overgrown with dense reeds and forests.

On the left bank there were other villages, between which a road was laid in the forest for a cannon shot - a cordon line. On the right "non-peaceful" side of the Terek, almost opposite the village of Starogladkovskaya, there was a Chechen village Hamamat-Yurt. In the south, beyond the Terek, the Cossack villages bordered on Greater Chechnya, in the north - on the Mozdok steppe, with its sandy breakers.

The houses in the village of Starogladkovskaya were wooden, covered with reeds. The village was surrounded by fences and a deep moat. Its population was Terek Cossacks; They were mainly engaged in cattle breeding, gardening, fishing and hunting. Carried out guard duty. Three versts from the village there was a guard post, also fortified with wattle; there was a soldier's guard station.

In the first half of the 19th century, the Caucasus was an arena of fierce struggle; it was also a place of exile for the progressive people of Russia - Lermontov and many Decembrists were exiled there. Pushkin, Lermontov, Marlinsky sang its extraordinary, enchanting nature. Even under Ivan the Terrible, Russians tried to penetrate the Caucasus, this desire was especially intensified under Catherine II. The best lands of the Caucasian plain were settled by the nobility. The local population of the Caucasus desperately resisted the penetration of the Russians. The fight against the highlanders took on an increasingly fierce and protracted character.

V 1834 the struggle of the highlanders against the Russians led Shamil which gave it a religious character. Using the religious fanaticism of the Muslims, Shamil created a large army, calling into it all men from sixteen to sixty years old.

Trying to delay the advance of the Russians, Shamil constantly made unexpected attacks, exhausting the Russian troops and constantly threatening the Russian border population.

Beginning in 1845, the Russian command undertook a large expedition against Shamil. Wide clearings were cut through the forests, along which the Russian troops advanced, and the highlanders were forced to move further into the mountains. The campaigns of the Russians against the highlanders were often of the most cruel nature.

Tolstoy believed that the Russians were waging a just war, but he was against the cruelties applied by the Russians to the highlanders. Almost every day there were skirmishes between the Cossacks and the highlanders. As soon as the enemy's crossing over the Terek was noticed, beacons were lit along the entire cordon line.

An alarm was sounded, and from all the nearest villages soldiers and Cossacks on horseback hurried without any order to the place of attack.

The Russian command undertook campaigns and sorties against the highlanders, stormed mountain fortresses along the way.

At first, life in the Caucasus made a not entirely pleasant impression on Tolstoy. He did not like the village of Starogladkovskaya, he did not like the apartment without the necessary amenities. He wrote to T. A. Ergolskaya:
“I expected this region to be beautiful, but it turned out that it wasn’t at all. Since the village is located in a lowland, there are no distant views.
Tolstoy did not find in the Caucasus what he expected to find, having read the romantic stories of Marlinsky.

A week later he and his brother moved to Old Yurt- a small Chechen village, a fortification near Goryachevodsk. From there he writes to Aunt Tatyana Alexandrovna:
“As soon as he arrived, Nikolenka received an order to go to the Staroyurt fortification to cover the sick in the Goryachevodsk camp ... Nikolenka left a week after his arrival, I followed him, and for three weeks now, as we have been here, we have been living in tents, but since The weather is beautiful and I am gradually getting used to these conditions, I feel good. Here are wonderful views, starting from the area where the springs are; a huge stone mountain, the stones are piled on top of each other; others, torn off, form, as it were, grottoes, others hang at a great height, crossed by streams of hot water, which break off with a roar in other places and cover, especially in the morning, the upper part of the mountain with white steam, which continuously rises from this boiling water. The water is so hot that eggs are boiled (hard boiled) in three minutes. In the ravine on the main stream there are three mills one above the other. They are built here in a very special way and are very picturesque. All day long the Tatar women come to wash clothes above and below the mills. I need to tell you what they wash with their feet. Like a burrowing anthill. The women are mostly beautiful and well built. Their oriental attire is charming, although poor. The picturesque groups of women and the wild beauty of the area is a truly charming picture, and I often admire it for hours. (translated from French).

It was not the Tatars but the Chechens who lived in the Old Yurt, but the Terek Cossacks, and after them Tolstoy called all the highlanders - Muslims in general - Tatars.

Tolstoy fell in love with the Caucasus. He decides to stay here in the military or civil service, “it doesn’t matter, only in the Caucasus, and not in Russia,” although he cannot forget those who remained in Moscow. In the Caucasus, he is still full of impressions of the last days spent in Kazan. Before him stands the image of Zinaida Molostvovoy.
"Will I never see her again?" he thinks. And on the very first day of arrival in the Caucasus in comic form writes in Kazan to A. S. Ogolin:

Mr Ogolin!
Hurry, Write
About all of you
To the Caucasus
And is Molostova healthy?
Borrow Leo Tolstoy.

A month later, in a letter to him, he again recalls those who remained in Kazan, regrets that he spent little time with them, and asks to tell Zinaida that he does not forget her.

Whether Tolstoy admires the beauty of nature, whether he admires the daring of the highlanders, he sees her, Zinaida, in everything beautiful, sees her deep look. The Bishop's Garden and the side path leading to the lake stand in front of him. He remembers how he and Zinaida walked along the shady path of the park. They walked in silence. So she did not hear about what the heart of the young man Tolstoy was full of.

And that's exactly what he did not express his feelings, but kept as something sacred, it was this unspoken that he remembered for the rest of his life.

In the summer of 1851, together with his brother Lev Nikolaevich, he volunteered to raid the highlanders. This was his first baptism of fire. During the campaign, Tolstoy observed the life of soldiers and officers; I saw how the detachment settled down to rest by the stream, and heard funny jokes and laughter. "I could not see a trace of anxiety in anyone" before the start of the battle.

Returning from a trip to the Old Yurt, Tolstoy takes up his diary. Enters in the diary and the ripe idea to write a novel "Four epochs of development"; three parts of it made up the story "Childhood", "Boyhood", "Youth", the last part, "Youth", Tolstoy did not succeed.

He does not part with his notebooks, writes in them everything that he sees around, in the hut, in the forest, on the street; rewritten, corrects. He makes sketches of landscapes, types of officers, writes down plans for planned works. Either he is going to describe the gypsy life, then he is going to write a good book about his aunt Tatyana Alexandrovna, then he is going to write a novel. To this end, in diaries and in translations, he exercises his style; develops an outlook on writing, on artistic mastery.

In August 1851 Tolstoy returns to Starogladkovskaya village, which this time makes a completely different impression on him. He likes the life and life of the Cossacks, who never knew serfdom, their independent, courageous character, especially among women. He studies the Kumyk language, which is the most common among Muslim highlanders, and writes down Chechen folk songs, learns to ride horses. Among the highlanders, Tolstoy finds many wonderfully courageous, selfless, simple and close to nature people. In the village of Tolstoy, he met the ninety-year-old Grebensky Cossack Epifan Sekhin, became friends with him, fell in love with him.

The brother of Lev Nikolaevich, Nikolai Nikolaevich, was also familiar with Epifan Sekhin. In his essay "Hunting in the Caucasus" he says about Epishka:
“This is an extremely interesting, probably already the last type of the old Grebensky Cossacks. Epishka, in his own words, was a fine fellow, a thief, a swindler, he drove herds to the other side, sold people, led Chechens on a lasso; now he is almost a ninety-year-old lonely old man. What has this man not seen in his life! He was in the casemates more than once, and he was in Chechnya several times. His whole life is a series of the most strange adventures: our old man never worked; his service itself was not what we are now accustomed to understand by this word. He either was a translator, or performed such assignments that, of course, only he alone could perform: for example, to bring some abrek, living or dead, from his own sakli to the city; set fire to the house of Bey-bulat, a well-known leader of the highlanders at that time, bring to the head of the detachment of honorary old people or amanats from Chechnya; go hunting with the boss...
Hunting and carousing are our old man's two passions: they were and still remain his only occupation; all his other adventures are only episodes."

Sitting over a bottle of chikhir, Uncle Epishka told Lev Nikolaevich a lot about his past, about the former life of the Cossacks. With him, Tolstoy spent whole days hunting, went to wild boars. He wrote to his brother Sergei:
“Hunting here is a miracle! Clean fields, swamps filled with hares ... "

Despite his advanced age, Uncle Epishka loved to play the balalaika, dance and sing. Tolstoy portrayed him in The Cossacks as Uncle Eroshka.
“I haven’t grieve in my life, and I won’t grieve either ... I’ll go out into the forest, I’ll look: everything is mine that is around, and when I come home, I sing a song,” Eroshka said to himself.

Uncle Eroshka's view of life is quite simple.
“The end will come - I will die and I won’t go hunting, but as long as I’m alive, drink, walk, my soul rejoice.”
He is against the war:
“And why does it, the war, exist? Either way, they would live peacefully, quietly, as our old people used to say. You come to them, they come to you. So side by side, honestly and flattering, they would have lived. But the fact that? He beats that one, he beats that one ... I wouldn’t order that.”

When Tolstoy was leaving Starogladkovskaya, he gave Uncle Epishka his dressing gown with silk laces, in which Epishka liked to walk around the village.

Already after the death of Tolstoy, the local residents of the village told the journalist Gilyarovsky about Uncle Epishka:
“And he never offended anyone by word or deed, unless he calls him “shvinya”. He was friends with the officers and said “you” to everyone. He did not serve anyone, but everyone loved: there was something to listen to, something to tell ... Then he sings songs. The voice is strong and resonant. He did not go to stanitsa gatherings, did not touch public affairs ... He loved Tolstoy very much. They were kunak, they didn’t take anyone with them except Tolstoy for hunting. It used to happen that kulesh was cooking kulesh in the garden near his hut - and Tolstoy was with him. Together they cook and eat ... "

Tolstoy struck up a strong friendship with the young Chechen Sado Misorbiev. In a letter to Tatyana Aleksandrovna Ergolskaya, Tolstoy wrote about him:
“I need to tell you that there is a village not far from the camp where Chechens live. One young Chechen Sado came to the camp and played. He did not know how to count or write down, and there were scoundrel officers who swindled him. So I never played against him, I discouraged him from playing, saying that he was being cheated, and suggested that he play for him. - He was terribly grateful to me for this and gave me a wallet. According to the well-known custom of this nation to give back, I gave him an inferior gun, which I bought for 8 rubles. To become a kunak, that is, a friend, according to custom, firstly, exchange gifts and then take food in the kunak's house. And then, according to the ancient folk custom (which is preserved only by tradition), they become friends for life and for death, and whatever I ask him for - money, a wife, his weapons, everything that he has the most precious - he must give it back to me, and equally I cannot refuse him anything. — Sado called me to his place and offered to be a kunak. I went. Having treated me according to their custom, he offered me to take what I liked: a weapon, a horse, whatever I wanted. I wanted to choose something less expensive and took a bridle with a silver set; but he said that he would consider this an insult, and forced me to take a checker, the price of which was at least 100 r. ser. His father is a wealthy man, but his money is buried, and he does not give his son a penny. In order to get money, the son steals horses or cows from the enemy, sometimes risks his life twenty times in order to steal a thing that is not worth even 10 rubles; he does this not out of self-interest, but out of daring ... Sado either has 100 silver rubles, or not a penny. After my visit, I gave him Nikolenka's silver watch, and we became bosom friends. “Often he proved his loyalty to me by exposing himself to various dangers for me; they consider it as nothing - it has become a habit and a pleasure. - When I left the Old Yurt, and Nikolenka stayed there, Sado came to him every day and said that he was bored and did not know what to do without me, and he was terribly bored. “Having learned from my letter to Nikolenka that my horse was ill and that I was asking you to find me another in the Old Yurt, Sado immediately came to me and brought me his horse, which he insisted that I take, no matter how I refused.”

Tolstoy admired Grebensky women - strong, free, independent in their actions. They were complete mistresses in their home. Tolstoy admired their beauty, their healthy build, their elegant oriental attire, courageous character, stamina and determination.

Tolstoy so loved the life and free life of the Cossacks, their closeness to nature, that he even seriously thought, just like his hero Olenin, "to join the Cossacks, buy a hut, cattle, marry a Cossack woman ..."

Life in the Caucasus ordinary people and rich nature had a beneficial effect on Tolstoy. What happened in the Caucasus with the hero of the story, Olenin, can be attributed to some extent to Tolstoy himself. He feels fresh, cheerful, happy and wonders how he could have lived so idly and aimlessly before. Only now it became clear to Tolstoy what happiness is. Happiness is being close to nature, living for others, he decides.

Tolstoy also liked the general structure of life of the Cossacks; with his militancy and freedom, he seemed to him an ideal for life and the Russian people. In 1857 Tolstoy wrote:
"The future of Russia is the Cossacks: freedom, equality and compulsory military service for everyone."

But, no matter how much Tolstoy admired the people and nature of the Caucasus, no matter how much he wanted to connect his fate with these people, he still understood that he could not merge with the life of the common people. He cannot become a Cossack Lukashka. He decides to enter the military service, earn an officer's rank, awards. But he was still not enlisted in the military, and this worried him greatly. He was not enrolled in active service, since he was still registered in the civil service in the Tula Nobility Assembly, although he had already filed a petition for dismissal a long time ago. Tolstoy shared his experiences with his aunt Tatyana Alexandrovna, who wanted to see her favorite as an officer. To receive the appointment, Tolstoy in October 1851 made a trip to Tiflis.

Tolstoy is holding exam title junker: in arithmetic, algebra, geometry, grammar, history, geography and foreign languages.

For each subject, he receives the highest mark - 10. And before receiving documents on exemption from civil service January 3, 1852 issued by decree fireworks IV class into battery No. 4 battery 20th Artillery Brigade, with the fact that upon receipt of documents, he will be enrolled in active service "from the day he was used in the service with the battery." Tolstoy was glad to finally throw off his civilian coat, made in St. Petersburg, and put on a soldier's uniform.

In Tiflis, Tolstoy had to stay for several months - there he fell ill. He felt lonely, but, despite this, he read a lot, worked on the story "Childhood" that he had begun. He wrote to Tatyana Alexandrovna:
“Remember, good aunt, that you once advised me to write novels; so, I took your advice; my pursuits, of which I am telling you, are literary. I don't know if what I'm writing will ever be published, but this work amuses me, and I've been doing it so long and hard that I don't want to quit.

In Tiflis, Tolstoy also studied music, which he missed very much; visited theaters, went hunting; I thought a lot about my life. Having no funds for the return trip, he was looking forward to sending money from the manager of Yasnaya Polyana. Debts also tormented him, especially an old debt to officer Knoring, to whom he lost five hundred rubles. And how glad Tolstoy was to receive a letter from his brother Nikolai Nikolaevich, in which there was a torn promissory note for the five hundred rubles lost to Knoring! His friend Sado won this bill from Knoring, tore it up and gave it to Nikolai Nikolaevich. Now Tolstoy was freed from the burden of this debt that weighed on him. A few days later Tolstoy left Tiflis and went to the Starogladkovskaya village.

The lonely life in Tiflis inspired Tolstoy's thoughts about family life He is seriously considering marriage. He perfectly understands that the desire to stay in the Caucasus, to marry a Cossack woman is only a dream, a fantasy; his family nest should be built there, in Yasnaya Polyana. Isn't it time to calm down, he thinks, and start life "with the quiet joys of love and friendship"? How good it would be, Tolstoy dreams, to live in Yasnaya Polyana, together with my aunt, to tell her about what he had to endure in the Caucasus. He will have a meek, kind wife, children, they will call Tatyana Alexandrovna grandmother. Sister Mashenka and older brother, old bachelor Nikolenka, will also live with them, Nikolenka will tell stories to children, play with them, and his wife will treat Nikolenka to his favorite dishes.

Returning to the village of Starogladkovskaya, Tolstoy found the beginning of new decisive hostilities against Chechnya. He takes in them Active participation, acts in campaigns. The campaign on the Dzhalka River was successful. There he shows courage, fearlessness. Tolstoy especially distinguished himself in the battle during the attack of the enemy on the river michike. In this battle, he was almost killed by a cannonball that hit the wheel of the cannon he was pointing.
“If the muzzle of the cannon, from which the cannonball flew out, had been deflected 1/1000 of the line in one direction or another, I would have been killed,” he wrote.

With the ensuing lull, Tolstoy again lives in Starogladkovskaya. He again listens to Uncle Epishka's stories, goes hunting, plays chess, and continues to work on Childhood.

Finally March 23, 1852 the long-awaited military enlistment order. But this already did little to please Tolstoy - the company of officers, occupied most of all with drinking parties, playing cards, became alien to him. Among the officers, he felt alone. Subsequently, one officer said of him:
“He was proud, others drink, walk, and he sits alone, reading a book. And then I saw more than once - all with a book ... "
In the Caucasian period of Tolstoy's life, artistic creativity was increasingly captured, he worked hard and hard on "Childhood", he had new ideas.
“I really want to start a short Caucasian story, but I do not allow myself to do this without finishing the work I have begun,” he writes.
A short story turned out to be then a story "Raid". At the same time, Tolstoy contemplates writing "The novel of the Russian landowner".

Increasingly, he asks himself what his purpose is.
“I'm 24 and I haven't done anything yet. - I feel that it is not without reason that for eight years now I have been struggling with doubt and passions. But what am I assigned to? This will open the future,” he writes in his diary.

A few days later, again referring to the diary, he argues:
“You have to work mentally. I know that I would be happier not knowing this job. But God put me on this path: I must follow it.”

Tolstoy begins to realize his true purpose - to be a writer.

The story "Childhood" was Tolstoy's first printed work. Tolstoy worked on it at the Kazkaz for more than a year, and, as we know, he started it back in Moscow. He revised it four times, rewrote it three times. Now he liked her, then he didn’t like her, sometimes he even began to doubt his own feelings. creativity, in his talent.

True, he definitely liked some chapters of "Childhood", more than others touched the chapter "Woe" and, re-reading it, he cried.

V July 1852 from Pyatigorsk Tolstoy sends to the editor of the Sovremennik magazine N. A. Nekrasov his first letter and manuscript "Childhood" signed with the initials "L. N.". Tolstoy asks Nekrasov to review the manuscript and make his own judgment about it.
“In essence, this manuscript is the 1st part of the novel - four epochs of development; the appearance of the next parts will depend on the success of the first. If, due to its size, it cannot be printed in one issue, then I ask you to divide it into three parts: from the beginning to chapter 17, from chapter 17 to 26, and from 26 to the end.
If it were possible to find a good scribe where I live, then the manuscript would be rewritten better and I would not be afraid for the extra prejudice that you will now certainly receive against it, ”he wrote to Nekrasov.

"Childhood" made a favorable impression on Nekrasov, and he informed the then unknown author:
“I don’t know the continuation, I can’t say decisively, but it seems to me that there is talent in its author. In any case, the direction of the author, the simplicity and reality of the content are the inalienable merits of this work. If there is more liveliness and movement in the subsequent parts (as one should expect), then this will be a good novel. Please send me a sequel. Both your novel and talent interested me. I would also advise you not to hide behind letters, but to start typing right behind your last name. Unless you are a random guest in literature.

"Childhood" was printed in 9th book Sovremennik in November 1852 entitled "The Story of My Childhood". Tolstoy was pleased with the first printed work, he was pleased to read commendable reviews about his story. He recalled:
“I’m lying on the bunk in the hut, and here is my brother and Ogolin (officer), reading and reveling in the pleasure of praise, even tears of delight stifle me, and I think: no one knows, even here they are, that they praise me so much.”

But at the same time, the first work upset Tolstoy. He was dissatisfied with the title: "The Story of My Childhood." “Who cares about my childhood story?” - he wrote to Nekrasov, and in the introduction to "Memoirs" he said: "My idea was to describe the story not of my own, but of my childhood friends" - he wanted to give a typical image of childhood.

Tolstoy found many changes and abbreviations in his published story; he was dissatisfied with the fact that they released the love story of Natalia Savishna, and generally considered his story mutilated. Tolstoy was then still unaware that many reductions and distortions were made not by the editors, but by the censors.

Tolstoy said that he would calm down only when the story was published as a separate book. A separate book "Childhood" was published four years later, in 1856. The appearance of the story made a great impression.

Everyone wanted to know who this new talented author was. The liveliest interest was shown by Turgenev, who at that time lived in Spassko-Lutovinovo. He kept asking Maria Nikolaevna, Lev Nikolaevich's sister, if she had a brother in the Caucasus who could be a writer. It was assumed that the story was written by Tolstoy's elder brother, Nikolai Nikolaevich. Turgenev asked to be welcomed. “I bow and applaud him,” he said.

Turgenev, like Nekrasov, believed that "this is a reliable talent."

Aunt Tatyana Alexandrovna was delighted with the appearance of the story. She found that F. I. Ressel and Praskovya Isaevna, whom she knew well in life, and especially the scene of her mother's death, were very truthfully described. “... it is described with such a feeling that one cannot read it without excitement, without partiality and without flattery I will tell you that one must have a real and very special talent in order to give interest to a plot so little interesting as childhood... "- she wrote to L. N. Tolstoy.

With amazing skill, the noble estate where the heroes lived is presented in the story "Childhood"; its furnishings and way of life are very similar to Yasnaya Polyana. Russian nature is picturesquely depicted in the story, so close and dear.

The story describes the life of a child of an old noble family. Although Tolstoy claimed that he did not write the history of his childhood, nevertheless, the experiences and moods of the main character, Nikolenka, many events from his life - games, hunting, a trip to Moscow, classes in the classroom, reading poetry - resemble Leo's childhood. Nikolaevich. Some of the characters in the story also resemble the people who surrounded Tolstoy as a child. Volodya - brother Seryozha, Lyubochka, with whom Nikolenka loved to play so much - sister Masha, the image of the grandmother is very reminiscent of Lev Nikolayevich's own grandmother, Pelageya Nikolaevna, the boy Ivin is Tolstoy's childhood friend Musin-Pushkin. Nikolenka's father is reminiscent of Tolstoy's neighbor, the landowner Isleniev, and Nikolenka's stepmother is his wife. Nikolenka's mother is the image of his mother formed in Tolstoy's imagination based on the recollections of those around him. According to Tolstoy, in the story "Childhood" there was an "incoherent mixture of truth and fiction", a mixture of the events of his childhood with the events of the life of his friends Islenyevs.

Following the story "Childhood" Tolstoy writes a military story "Raid". In October 1852, he writes in his diary: “I want to write Caucasian essays for the formation of style and money,” and outlines a plan for his essays.

Back in July, Tolstoy conceived the idea of ​​writing The Novel of a Russian Landowner, thought over the plan, and in October began work on it.

In December, Tolstoy wrote to his brother Sergei Nikolayevich:
“I have begun a serious, useful affair, according to my concepts, and I intend to use all my strength and abilities on it. I call this novel a book, because I believe that it is enough for a person in life to write at least one, short, but useful book, and I told Nikolenka, as we used to draw pictures: I will draw this picture for 3 months.

V November 1852 Tolstoy begins work on the second part of the trilogy - "Boyhood". He worked on it with great enthusiasm, but she was given to him with difficulty. The same characters remained in it as in "Childhood", the events that began there developed, but in the new story there was less autobiography, but more fantasy. If in "Childhood" Tolstoy liked the chapter "Woe", then here - "Thunderstorm"; he considered the place "superb". Three times Tolstoy had to rewrite his story "Boyhood".

In December 1852 Tolstoy ends the story "Raid" and sends him to Nekrasov's Sovremennik. In this story, he depicted a raid in which he personally took the site. Main character story, Captain Khlopov, is a brave and unshakable man. The character traits of Captain Khlopov are similar to the character of the writer's beloved brother, Nikolenka.

In "The Raid" Tolstoy without embellishment depicts the destruction of the mountain village, robberies, murders of the local population, encouraged by the Russian command. Tolstoy is clearly on the side of the highlanders, he sympathizes with them.
“Carabinieri, why did you do this?..” asks the author of the carabinieri who killed a mountain woman with a child in her arms. He reminds the soldier of his wife and son, who he left behind. “What would you say,” asks the author of the carabinieri, “if your wife and child were attacked?”

In this passage of the story, Tolstoy condemns senseless murders, wars, and for the first time speaks of the brotherhood of peoples.

In one version of the story "The Raid", Tolstoy wrote:
“How good it is to live in the world, how beautiful this world is! I felt, “how vile people are and how little they know how to appreciate him,” I thought. This not new, but involuntary and sincere thought was evoked in me by all the nature around me, but most of all by the resonant carefree song of the quail, which was heard somewhere far away, in the tall grass.
It is true that she does not know and does not think about whose land she sings on, whether on the Russian land or on the land of the recalcitrant highlanders, it cannot even enter her head that this land is not common. She thinks, stupidly, that the earth is one for all, she judges by the fact that she flew in with love and song, built her green house where she wanted, fed, flew wherever there was greenery, air and sky, brought out children. She has no idea what rights, humility, power are, she knows only one power, the power of nature, and unconsciously, meekly submits to it.

"The Raid" was published in 1853 year in 3rd room magazine "Contemporary", as well as "Childhood", signed "L. N.".

In early January 1853, Tolstoy again took part in the campaign against the highlanders. After a monotonous life in the village, the campaign gave Tolstoy a detente, he felt cheerful, joyful, was full of militant poetry, admired the majestic nature of the Caucasus. He wanted to get down to business as soon as possible, but the Grozny detachment lingered for a long time in the fortress.

Tolstoy endured the idle, inactive life with difficulty.
“Everyone, especially my brother, drinks,” he writes, “and this is very unpleasant for me. War is such an unjust and bad deed that those who fight try to drown out the voice of conscience in themselves.

For the first time, Tolstoy begins to doubt the correctness of his participation in the hostilities against the highlanders.

In mid-February, the assault on Shamil's positions located on the Michika River began. Tolstoy commanded a battery platoon. With a shot from his gun, he knocked out the gun of the enemy. For this, he was promised a reward - the St. George Cross. Tolstoy really wanted to receive this award, mainly to please his relatives.

Shamil's troops, having been defeated, randomly retreated.

For a successful battle on the Michika River, many of its participants received awards, but Tolstoy did not receive the promised St. George Cross. On the eve of the issuance of awards, he was so carried away by playing chess that he did not appear on guard on time, for which he received a reprimand and was put under arrest. And the next day, when the St. George crosses were handed out, he was under arrest.

“The fact that I did not receive the cross made me very sad. Apparently, I am not happy. And I confess that this stupidity would greatly console me, ”he wrote.

Tolstoy also had a second opportunity to receive the St. George Cross - for a successful battle on February 18, 1853. Two St. George crosses were sent to the battery. The battery commander, turning to Tolstoy, said: "You deserve the cross, if you want - I will give it to you, otherwise there is a very worthy soldier who deserves the same and is waiting for the cross as a means of subsistence." The George Cross gave the right to a lifelong pension in the amount of a salary. Tolstoy yielded the cross to the old soldier.

After Shamil's retreat, the Russian troops, approaching the Gudermes River, began to break through the canal, and Tolstoy with his battery returned to the village of Starogladkovskaya. There, letters and the March issue of Sovremennik were waiting for him, in which the story "The Raid" was printed. Tolstoy was again delighted, but at the same time upset - the story was mutilated by censorship. On this occasion, Nekrasov wrote:
“Please do not lose heart from these troubles common to all our gifted writers.” Not jokingly, your story is still very alive and graceful, and it was extremely good. Don't forget Sovremennik, who is counting on your cooperation."

Despite Nekrasov's sympathetic review of The Raid, Tolstoy could not come to terms with the distortion of the story: each work is a particle of his soul.

“Childhood” was spoiled,” he wrote to his brother Sergei, “and the “Raid” disappeared from censorship. Everything that was good is thrown out or mutilated.

Approving reviews of "The Raid" caused a creative upsurge in Tolstoy. He writes "Christmas Night", but this story remained unfinished. He is working with enthusiasm on "Adolescence". At the same time he is considering the plan of "Youth".

In June, during a trip to the Vozdvizhenskoye fortress, Tolstoy was almost captured by the Chechens.

It was a hot summer day. Tolstoy, Sado Miserbiev and three officers separated from their detachment and rode forward. As a precaution, they split into two groups: Tolstoy and Sado rode along the upper road, and the officers along the lower one. Beneath Tolstoy there was a fine dark gray pacer of the Kabardian breed, he trotted well, but was weak for a fast ride. And Sado has a clumsy, lean, long-legged horse of the steppe Nogai breed, but very fast. Tolstoy and Sado exchanged horses and rode carelessly admiring the views of nature.

Suddenly, in the distance, Sado noticed Chechens rushing towards them, about thirty people. Tolstoy let the officers traveling along the lower road know about this, and he himself rushed with Sado to the fortification of Grozny. Tolstoy could easily have ridden on a fast horse, but he did not want to leave his friend.

The Chechens were approaching. The fort noticed it. A detachment of cavalrymen was sent out, and the Chechens took to flight. The danger for Tolstoy and Sado passed, and only one of the officers escaped.

This case was used by Tolstoy in the story "Prisoner of the Caucasus".

Returning to Starogladkovskaya, Tolstoy falls into despondency, he is dissatisfied with himself, he had a period of "cleansing of the soul", as he called this state of mind. He makes a promise to himself to do good as much as possible, to be active, not to act lightly. Again he thinks about the purpose of life and defines it as follows:
“The purpose of my life is known - the good that I owe to my subjects and my compatriots. I owe the first that I own them, the second - that I own talent and mind.

Tolstoy clearly recognizes talent already in himself, he is not an accidental guest in literature. He has ideas for new works, he thinks of writing "The Diary of a Caucasian Officer", "The Fugitive" (these are the future "Cossacks").

He is hard at work on a sequel to Boyhood.
"Work! Work! How happy I feel when I work,” he writes in his diary.
Immersed in reading, rereading Turgenev's Notes of a Hunter, which still make a strong impression on him. “It is somehow difficult to write after him,” Tolstoy notes in his diary.

Despite the hard work, he still felt some dissatisfaction with his life. It seemed to him that he was not fulfilling his mission, which was not yet entirely clear to himself, that he was not fulfilling a high calling. On July 28, he writes: “Without a month, twenty-five years, and still nothing!”

From Pyatigorsk, Tolstoy traveled to Kislovodsk, Zheleznovodsk to conduct a course of treatment with baths there. In Zheleznovodsk, he had an idea to write "The Caucasian Story", and August 28, on his birthday, he begins a story, which he then calls "The Fugitive" and which appeared the first draft of the famous story"Cossacks". In total, Tolstoy worked on The Cossacks for ten years with interruptions.

About the works of Tolstoy dedicated to the Caucasus, R. Rolland wrote:
"Above all these works rises, the likeness of the highest peak in the mountain range, the best of the lyrical novels created by Tolstoy, the song of his youth, the Caucasian poem "Cossacks". The snowy mountains, looming against the background of the dazzling sky, fill the entire book with their proud beauty. "

The ancestors of the Cossacks came to North Caucasus from the Don at the end of the 16th century, and under Peter I, when a defensive line was created along the Terek from the attack of mountaineer neighbors, they were moved to the other side of the river. Here stood their villages, cordons and fortresses. In the middle of the 19th century, there were a little more than ten thousand Grebensky Cossacks. At the time of Tolstoy, the Grebensky Cossacks - "warlike, beautiful and rich Russian population" - lived along the left bank of the Terek, on a narrow strip of wooded fruit. native land. In one of the chapters of his story, Tolstoy tells the story of this "little people", referring to an oral tradition that in some bizarre way connected the resettlement of the Cossacks from the Grebny with the name of Ivan the Terrible.

Tolstoy heard this legend when he himself, like the hero of the "Cossacks" Olenin, lived in a Cossack village and was friends with the old hunter Epifan Sekhin, depicted in the story under the name of Uncle Eroshka.

Tolstoy worked on "Cossacks" intermittently, ten years. In 1852, immediately after the story "Childhood" was published in Sovremennik, he decided to write "Caucasian essays", which would include Epishka's "amazing" stories about hunting, about the old life of the Cossacks, about his adventures in the mountains.

The Caucasian story began in 1853. Then for a long time the idea of ​​the novel was preserved, with an acutely dramatic development of the plot. The novel was called "The Fugitive", "The Fugitive Cossack". As can be judged from the numerous plans and written passages, the events in the novel developed as follows: in the village, an officer clashes with a young Cossack, Maryana's husband; a Cossack, having wounded an officer, is forced to flee to the mountains; There are various rumors about him, they know that he, together with the highlanders, is robbing the villages; yearning for his native home, the Cossack returns, he is seized and then executed. The fate of the officer was drawn in different ways: he continues to live in the village, dissatisfied with himself and his love; leaves the village, looking for "salvation in courage, in an affair with Vorontsova"; dies, killed by Mariana.

How far is this fascinating love story from the simple and deep conflict of "Cossacks"!

Leaving Moscow and getting to the village, Olenin discovers a new world for himself, which first interests him, and then irresistibly attracts him.

On the way to the Caucasus, he thinks:
"To leave completely and never come back, not show up in society." In the village, he is fully aware of all the abomination, disgust and lies of his former life.

However, a wall of misunderstanding separates Olenin from the Cossacks.

He performs a kind, selfless deed - he gives Lukashka a horse, and this causes surprise among the villagers and even increases distrust:
"Let's see, let's see what will come of it"; "What a squeamish people of the yunkirs, trouble! .. Just set it on fire or something."
His enthusiastic dreams of becoming a simple Cossack are not understood by Maryana, and her friend, Ustenka, explains:
"And so, he's lying, what has come into his mind. Mine doesn't say anything! Just spoiled!"
And even Eroshka, who loves Olenin for his "simplicity" and, of course, is the closest to him of all the villagers, catching Olenin writing a diary, without hesitation advises to leave an empty case: "What slander to write!"

But Olenin, sincerely admiring the life of the Cossacks, is alien to their interests and does not accept their truth. In the hot season of cleaning, when hard, incessant work occupies the villagers from early morning until late evening, Olenin, invited by Maryana's father to the gardens, comes with a gun on his shoulder to catch hares.
"Is it easy to go looking for hares at work time!" - Granny Julitta rightly remarks. And at the end of the story, he is unable to understand that Maryana is grieving not only because of Lukashka's wound, but because the interests of the entire village have suffered - "the Cossacks have been killed." The story ends with a sad recognition of the bitter truth that neither Olenin's passionate love for Maryana, nor her willingness to love him, nor his disgust for secular life and his enthusiastic desire to join the simple and sweet Cossack world can destroy the wall of alienation.

The artistic effect of Maryana's words is such that when they are spoken, we perceive them both as unexpected and as the only ones possible for her in her position. We suddenly (precisely suddenly!) begin to understand with all clarity that Maryana, with her inherent simplicity and naturalness of character and behavior, otherwise simply could not have answered. How surprisingly organic and appropriate for her in that calm and obviously cheerful mood in which she is, this unexpectedly simple and in its own way very true:
“Why not love you, you are not crooked!” How natural and psychologically true is the attention that she first of all pays to Olenin's hands: "white, white, soft, like a kaimak."
She herself does not have them white, and Lukashka's, too, and other Cossacks. She draws attention to what, in her eyes, most of all distinguishes Olenin from people she knows well. These and similar words of Maryana exactly correspond to her character and well convey in her the properties of her personality, her individually unique. They seem to highlight it in front of us, help to create a lively, very plastic image. And not only alive and plastic - beautiful.

In none of Tolstoy's works, thoughts about self-sacrifice, about happiness, which consists in doing good to others, were expressed with such force of feeling as in The Cossacks. Of all the heroes of Tolstoy, striving for moral self-improvement, Olenin is the most ardent, unconsciously surrendering to a young spiritual impulse and therefore especially charming. This is probably why it is the least didactic. The same impulse of youthful forces that drew him to self-improvement very soon destroys the inspired moral theories and leads to the recognition of another truth: "He who is happy is right!" And he greedily seeks this happiness, although in the depths of his soul he feels that it is impossible for him. He leaves the village, rejected by Maryana, alien to the Cossacks, but even more distant from his former life.

The title - "Cossacks" - accurately conveys the meaning and pathos of the work. It is curious that, while choosing different names in the course of his work, Tolstoy, however, never stopped at "Deer".

Turgenev, who considered Olenin an extra person in The Cossacks, was, of course, wrong. The ideological conflict of the story would not have happened without Olenin. But the fact that in the life of the Cossack village Olenin is an extra person, that the poetry and truth of this life exists and is expressed independently of him, is beyond doubt. Not only for existence, but also for self-consciousness, the Cossack world does not need Olenin. This world is beautiful in and of itself.

In the clash of the Cossacks with the abreks, in the wonderful scenes of grape cutting and the stanitsa holiday, in the war, labor and fun of the Cossacks - Olenin acts as an outside, albeit very interested observer. From the lessons of Eroshka, he learns both the philosophy of life and the morality of this amazing and so attractive world for him.

In an 1860 diary, Tolstoy wrote:
"It will be strange if this adoration of work of mine goes in vain."
In the story, the simple, close to nature, working life of the Cossacks is affirmed as a social and moral ideal. Labor is the necessary and joyful basis of people's life, but labor is not on the landowner's, but on one's own land. So Tolstoy decided in the early 60s the most topical issue of the era.

"The future of Russia's Cossacks is freedom, equality and compulsory military service for everyone," he wrote at the time of his work on The Cossacks. Later, he developed his idea of ​​a free land and said that the Russian revolution could be based on this idea. No one better than Tolstoy expressed in his work this dream of the Russian peasant, and no one more than he built utopian theories, especially in later years, about peaceful ways to achieve it.

What are the "Cossacks" in this sense? Dream or reality? Idyll or real picture? It is obvious that the patriarchal-peasant idyll lives only in the memoirs of Eroshka. And at the first meeting with Olenin, and then many times he repeats:
"You have passed, my time, you will not return"; "Today there are no such Cossacks. It's bad to look ..."

Eroshka is the embodiment of a living history, a living legend, alien to the new village. Everyone treats him either hostilely or mockingly, except for Olenin and Lukashka's nephew. Eroshka was "simple" in his time, he did not count money; the current typical representative of the Cossack society - the cornet - pulled off his brother's garden and is having a long political conversation with Olenin in order to bargain for the extra for a stay.

It is no coincidence that it is the old man Eroshka who represents the human, humane look in the story. He loves and pities everyone: the child killed in the plundered aul, and the horseman shot by Lukashka, and the wounded animal, and the butterfly, foolishly flying into the fire, and Olenin, whom the girls do not like. But he himself is unloved.
"Unloved we are with you, orphans!" - crying, he says to Olenin.

The story affirms the beauty and significance of life itself. None of Tolstoy's creations is imbued with such a youthful faith in the elemental power of life and its triumph as The Cossacks. And in this sense, the Caucasian story outlines a direct transition to War and Peace.

For the first time in his work, Tolstoy created in "Cossacks" not sketches of folk types, but whole, brightly outlined, original, dissimilar characters of people from the people - the majestic beauty Maryana, the daring Lukashka, the sage Eroshka.

In Pyatigorsk Tolstoy writes a story "Marker Notes" with which he is very pleased. He wrote it in four days. It was a confession of the soul of a young writer, a story about what worried and tormented him.

Tolstoy stayed in Pyatigorsk for three months. He has fond memories of that time. Only service failures worried him, since the spring he began to think about leaving the military service. The reason for this was the resignation of brother Nikolai Nikolaevich and the expiration of the term of stay in the Caucasus, which Tolstoy appointed himself; He was tired of the empty society around him. The desire to retire matured, but, not hoping to get it right away, Tolstoy in the spring of 1853 submits a report on leave for a trip to his homeland. However, already in June, circumstances changed dramatically: relations between Russia and Turkey became aggravated. Nicholas I issued a manifesto, according to which the Russian troops were to occupy Moldavia and Wallachia, which were under the dependence of Turkey.

In connection with the outbreak of hostilities, resignations and vacations from the army were prohibited, and Tolstoy turned to the commander of the troops located in Moldavia and Wallachia, M. D. Gorchakov, who was his second cousin, with a request to send him to the active army.

Sadly meets Tolstoy new, 1854. He rereads the letter he had just written to Aunt Tatyana Alexandrovna:
“For some time now I have been very sad and cannot overcome this in myself: without friends, without classes, without interest in everything that surrounds me, best years my life go fruitless for myself and for others; my situation, perhaps tolerable for others, becomes for me, with my sensitivity, more and more painful. “I pay dearly for the misdeeds of my youth.”

Tolstoy's request was granted: in January 1854 he was transferred by fireworks to the active army in Bucharest.

Before leaving for the army, Tolstoy decides to visit Yasnaya Polyana, but before going there, he takes an exam for the first rank of an officer. Although the exam was a mere formality, Tolstoy passed it well. According to the twelve-point system, he received from 10 to 12 points in eleven subjects for each. Tolstoy so wanted to go to Yasnaya Polyana as an officer that he tried on an officer's uniform the very next day.

At the last minute, Tolstoy felt sorry to part with the comrades with whom he got along, many of whom he fell in love with. All the comrades gathered to see him off, some officers shed tears even at parting.

If we imagine the story of a great life lived by Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy, and his rich creative biography in the form of a huge, voluminous, thousand-sheet book, then this folio will contain several very remarkable pages that connect the name of the great writer of the earth with our region, with the quiet Don Russian.

We remember from childhood folk tale written by Leo Tolstoy.
- It was, it says in it, that old Ivan had two sons: Shat Ivanovich and Don Ivanovich. Wayward Shat was older and stronger, and Don, the younger son, was weaker. At first they lived with their father, but the time came to part - their sons to torture their fate. Their father took them out of the village, ordered them to listen in everything, and showed the way to everyone. Only Shat did not listen to his father. Hot and strong, he rushed ahead, and - lost his way, got lost in the swamps. And Don Ivanovich - quiet and submissive - went where his father punished, and went through all of Russia, paved the way to the southern sea, became noble and glorious ...

Rivers carry in their waves the history and life of peoples. If you cast a glance into the distant past, it turns out that not the Volga, but the Don was considered the main river in Russia. It was here that the Russians went out to fight to the death with their enemies: the Don banks remember Svyatoslav and Igor, the Battle of Kulikovo and the battle on Kalka. It was on the Don that the Russian fleet was born, the fires of Razin and Pugachev blazed. And Tolstoy could not but be interested in this. But only once did Lev Nikolaevich visit the Don. Somewhere near the mouth Bystraya river, lost steppe farm Belogorodtsev. Today, it cannot be found on any map, and a hundred years ago, a pit tract passed through it and a horse-post station was located in the farmstead. Blizzard in winter 1854 Tolstoy turned out to be her guest.

He then rode on the messenger from the Caucasus to Yasnaya Polyana. Just before leaving, Lev Nikolayevich received the rank of ensign and hurried to see his relatives in order to go to the Danube front. In the travel suitcase lay the manuscript of a new story - "Boyhood", also for "Contemporary". He was in a hurry, generously endowed the coachmen with tips, drove even at night and got lost. The following entry can be found in the writer's diary:
“January 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 was on the road. 24 in Belogorodtsevskaya. 100 miles from Cherkassk, wandered all night. And I got the idea to write the story "Snowstorm".
This story was published in the third, March book of Sovremennik for 1856.

Then the writer S.T. Aksakov, who read it, wrote to Turgenev: “Please tell Count Tolstoy that "Blizzard" excellent story...

But let's get back to the story itself. It starts like this:
“At seven o’clock in the evening, having drunk tea, I left the station, whose name I no longer remember, but I remember, somewhere in the Land of the Don Army, near Novocherkassk” ...

V Novocherkassk, as established by local historians, the writer was January 24, 1854 He rested here in the European Hotel. By evening, he had already passed through the Kadamovsky farm, where he changed horses, and arrived at Klinovskaya. From Klinovskaya, “having drunk tea”, at seven o’clock in the evening, despite the good “advice of the caretaker, it’s better not to drive, so as not to get lost all night and not freeze on the road,” the writer went further, to station Belogorodtsevskaya. But after a quarter of an hour the coachman had to stop the horses and look for a way.
“It was clear,” said Tolstoy, “that we were going, God knows where, because, after driving for another quarter of an hour, we did not see a single milestone.”
Until the very morning, twelve hours in a row, wandering continued "in a completely bare steppe, what is this part of the Earth of the Don army." Fortunately, everything turned out well, and Tolstoy got to Belogorodtsevskaya. He will be on the road for two weeks. Will ride through farm Astakhov on the Deep River Nizhne-Lozovskaya, Kazan, then through the lands of the Voronezh province. On February 2, already in Yasnaya Polyana, he writes in his diary:
“Exactly two weeks was on the road. The only amazing thing that happened to me was a blizzard…”

But it will be another two years before Tolstoy writes a story about it. He will visit Sevastopol, take part in the battles there. And yet, the impressions of what he experienced in the snow-covered Don steppe are so deeply engraved in his memory that he cannot help but take up the pen.

And it will not be just landscape painting - the reader will see coachmen, postmen, truck drivers doing their difficult and sometimes dangerous work calmly, in a businesslike way, even with some kind of cheerful excitement (as we say the driver Ignashka). Their lives, their destinies - the reader can see it visibly - are inextricably merged with the hard fate of their native land. Russian land.

"Blizzard" will be the first, but by no means the only work of the great writer, which is associated with our region. From his youth and until his last days, Tolstoy was interested in the Donshchina, its originality, Cossack liberties. And this entry appears in the diary.
“The whole history of Russia was made by the Cossacks. No wonder the Europeans call us Cossacks. The people want to be Cossacks...
This was said in the sense that the Russian people strive for freedom, will and justice.

No matter how many disappointments and failures life in the Caucasus brought him, nevertheless this time, by his own admission, was one of the happiest periods of his life and brought him many benefits.

Subsequently, Tolstoy will say that the Caucasus is war and freedom, i.e. test of strength and dignity human nature, on the one hand, and admiration for the life of the Caucasian peoples who did not know serfdom, on the other. Having left for the Danube army, to another place of service, he writes in his diary:
“I begin to love the Caucasus, although posthumously, but with a strong love. This wild land is really good, in which two most opposite things are so strangely and poetically combined - war and freedom.

Life in the Caucasus gave Tolstoy rich material for reflection.
“I began to think in a way that only once in a lifetime do people have the power to think. I have my notes of that time, and now, re-reading them, I could not understand that a person could reach such a degree of mental exaltation that I reached then. It was both painful and good times. Never before or since have I reached such a height of thought, have I looked into there, as at this time, lasting 2 years. And everything that I found then will forever remain my conviction.- he wrote five years later to A. A. Tolstoy.

And his anguish, his inexplicable anxiety and sometimes incomprehensible sadness - all these were signs, as Tolstoy himself said about it, "the birth of high thought, attempts at creativity."

In the Caucasus, Tolstoy develops his own view of writing, of artistic mastery.
“It seems to me,” he wrote, “that it is actually impossible to describe a person; but you can describe how it affected me. To talk about a person: he is an original, kind, intelligent, stupid, consistent person, etc. ... words that do not give any idea about a person, but have a claim to describe a person, while often they only confuse.
A little later, he wrote in his diary: “The most pleasant are those (works. - A.P.), in which the author seems to be trying to hide his personal view and at the same time remains constantly faithful to him wherever he is found. The most colorless are those in which the gaze changes so frequently that it is completely lost.
Tolstoy follows these rules when depicting the characters of heroes in his works.

In the Caucasus, Tolstoy first found his true vocation, "not invented, but really existing, corresponding to his inclinations" - a literary work. He is now systematically engaged in it, developing the principles of artistic mastery.

“When rereading and correcting an essay,” he writes, “do not think about what needs to be added (no matter how good the passing thoughts are), unless you see ambiguity or understatement main idea, but to think about how to throw out as much as possible from it without violating the thought of the composition (no matter how good these extra passages are).

Creativity should bring joy to the artist, and he achieves this only if, says Tolstoy, if the subject he writes about deserves attention and is vital, serious.

The theme of the Caucasus runs through many of Leo Tolstoy's works, up to the very latest. The writer never again visited the Caucasus, but he retained his love for this region until the last days of his life.

One cannot say about Tolstoy's life: "in his declining years." last decade his life, ten years after the novel "Resurrection", was filled with work, searches, literary ideas. Tolstoy was old in years, but not in creative power. In him and in his old age, until the end of his days, there was an amazing fullness and richness of mental, spiritual life.

Hadji Murad - the hero of the story by L.N. Tolstoy "Hadji Murad" (1896-1904)- a real historical person, famous for his courage Naib (authorized) Shamil, in 1834-1836. one of the rulers of the Avar Khanate. In 1851, he went over to the side of the Russians, then he tried to flee to the mountains to save his family, which remained in the hands of Shamil, but was overtaken and killed. Tolstoy said about H.-M.: "This is my hobby." Most of all, the artist was captivated by the energy and strength of H.-M.'s life, the ability to defend his life to the last. And only 45 years later, in 1896, Tolstoy began work on the story.

What prompted Tolstoy to start work on the story, we read in his diary entry dated July 19, 1896:
“Yesterday I was walking along the pre-war black earth fallow. Until the eye takes a look - nothing but black earth - not a single green grass. And now, on the edge of the dusty, gray road, a Tatar bush (burr), three shoots: one is broken, and a white, polluted flower hangs; the other is broken and spattered with mud, the black stalk is broken and soiled; the third sprout sticks out to the side, also black with dust, but is still alive and reddens in the middle.” He reminded Hadji Murad. I would like to write. He defends life to the last, and alone among the whole field, somehow, he defended it.
This entry formed the basis of the prologue to the story.

Tolstoy wrote:
"Well done! I thought. And some feeling of cheerfulness, energy, strength seized me. That's how it should be, that's how it should be."
In the image of H.-M., in addition to courage, love of freedom, pride, Tolstoy especially emphasized simplicity (H.-M. did not come from a rich family, although he was friends with the khans), almost childish sincerity. In the story, the hero is given a childish smile that seduces everyone and is preserved even on a dead head (this detail is not in any of sources read by Tolstoy at work; according to expert estimates, these sources over 170). Consciousness of one's dignity is combined in H.-M. with openness and charm.

He charms everyone: the young officer Butler, and Loris-Melikov, and the simple Russian woman Marya Dmitrievna, and the Vorontsovs' little son Bulka. In December 1851, Tolstoy wrote to his brother Sergei Nikolaevich from Tiflis:
“If you want to show off the news from the Caucasus, then you can tell that the second person after Shamil, a certain Hadji Murad, recently handed himself over to the Russian government. He was the first scorcher (jigit) and well done in all of Chechnya, but he did meanness.
Working almost fifty years later on the story, Tolstoy thought quite differently. First of all, because he denied war, any war, for people, all people are brothers and are obliged to live in peace.

The war turns out to be necessary only for two persons - Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich and the inspirer of the "holy war" against the Gentiles, Imam Shamil. Both are cruel, treacherous, power-hungry, immoral despots, equally harshly condemned by Tolstoy.

Kh.-M. is their victim, like the Russian soldier Petrukha Avdeev, who fell in love with Kh.-M. In the course of work on the story, Tolstoy had an idea to show one negative feature in H.-M. - "deception of faith." Instead of the title "Burp" appeared, it was, "Khazavat", but in the first copy from the autograph, in 1896, the final one was recorded: "Hadji Murad". The hero is not at all peculiar to religious fanaticism. The daily prayer of Muslims - prayer, performed several times a day - all that is said about the commitment of H.-M. to your faith. In 1903, speaking to the American journalist James Creelman about his work, Tolstoy said:
“This is a poem about the Caucasus, not a sermon. The central figure is Hadji Murad, a folk hero who served Russia, then fought against it along with his people, and in the end the Russians cut off his head. This is a story about a people who despise death.

The image of H.-M. full of true poetry. Mountain legends, legends and songs that Tolstoy admired long before writing the story (correspondence of the 1870s with A. A. Fet); wonderful descriptions of nature, especially the starry sky - all this accompanies the life and death of H.-M. The unsurpassed artistic power of these descriptions delighted M. Gorky. According to the poet N. Tikhonov, when the story was translated into the Avar language and people read it, among whom some remembered Shamil, they could not believe that it was written by a count, a Russian officer:
“No, he didn’t write it… God wrote it…”
Ch. Aitmatov, for his part, admires the psychological insight into the essence of another national character:
“Both Hadji Murad and his naibs are written in such a way that you see them and believe their real existence. I happened to speak with the descendants of Hadji Murad, and they claim that Tolstoy created a reliable, accurate character. How did he do it? The secret, the great secret of the artist. This is the secret of the huge heart of Leo Tolstoy, who possessed the understanding of "man in general."

After the memorable January blizzard of 1854, Leo Tolstoy never again visited our area, but he was keenly interested in the events that took place on the Don. He corresponded with his readers from Rostov, Taganrog, Novocherkassk, villages of Veshenskaya, Razdorskaya, Bagaevskaya, villages and farms of the Don.

Tolstoy has a series of stories for children: a story about Pugachev “How an aunt told her grandmother about how the robber Emelka Pugachev gave her a dime”(1875), short story "Ermak"(1862). The writer conceived a novel about the era of Peter I. And in his epic "War and Peace" Tolstoy worthily notes the military deeds of the sons of the Don steppes - Ataman Platov, Major General Grekov, Count Orlov-Denisov, their captains, cornets, and just ordinary Cossacks .

And one more trace of the Don in the fate of Leo Tolstoy: having broken with his family and the environment that burdened him, Tolstoy on the night of October 28, 1910 left Yasnaya Polyana, where he spent a significant part of his life, and at the Volovo station of the Ryazan-Ural railway took the ticket to Rostov-on-Don. Tolstoy was about to come to Novocherkassk to his niece E. S. Denisenko. But on the way he fell seriously ill and December 7, 1910 died at the station Astapovo.

List of used literature:

1. Burnasheva, N. I. Early work of L. N. Tolstoy: text and time / N. I. Burnasheva. - Moscow: MIK, 1999. - 336 p. : ill.
2. Maymin, Evgeny Alexandrovich (1921-). Leo Tolstoy: The Writer's Way / E. A. Maimin; resp. ed. D.S. Likhachev. - 2nd ed. - Moscow: Nauka, 1984. - 191 p. - (From the history of world culture).
3. Popovkin, Alexander I. L. N. Tolstoy /A. I. Popovkin. - Moscow: Detgiz, 1963. - 287 p., 16 sheets.
4. Tolstoy, Lev Nikolaevich (1828-1910). Cossacks; Hadji Murad: [tales] / L. N. Tolstoy; ill. E. Lansere. - Moscow: Fiction, 1981. - 304 p. : ill., tsv. ill.

Filmography:

• Caucasian story [Video recording]: based on the story of L.N. Tolstoy "Cossacks" / dir. Georgy Kalatozov. - Moscow: Kinovideoobedinenie "Krupny plan" - 1 electron. opt. disk (DVD-ROM) (2 h. 11 min.): sound, color. ; 12 cm, in a container. - (Domestic cinema of the XX century) - Ex. Dan. original: Georgia-film, 1978

Tolstoy L. N. and the Caucasus

Write to us

Lev Tolstoy. Officer Writer.

What would happen if one of the cannonballs aimed at the Yazonovsky redoubt flew along a slightly different trajectory? Or what would happen if the bullet of a Caucasian highlander met with the chest of a young gunner? Perhaps we would remember Lev Nikolaevich as a writer of an average hand ...

The two wars he went through made Tolstoy think with unprecedented intensity and pushed him to become a great writer and thinker. What happened to him? How did he balance writing with a military career?

At 22, Tolstoy spent his time in revelry and gambling, and at the same time he was deeply interested in music and began to write. The Tolstoys grew up without parents, and the older brother Nikolai helped the writer find his way in life. He served in the Caucasus and, having arrived in Moscow for a while, called Lev with him. He doubted, but he lost a lot of cards and was forced to hastily leave.

And in 1851, Leo Tolstoy arrived in the Caucasus. Then the Russian generals fought the famous Imam Shamil. For several years now, the war has been going on according to a new tactic: wide clearings were cut through the forest, along which troops marched into the mountains, forcing the highlanders to retreat. Lighthouses were located along the Terek; as soon as they noticed somewhere that the enemy was crossing the river, the beacons lit up, and the Cossacks and soldiers from everywhere hurried to the place of the battle.

The Russian command constantly equipped campaigns, captured the fortresses of the highlanders. In the summer, Lev Nikolayevich took part in the battle for the first time: he and his brother Nikolai went on a military expedition. The writer was struck by the calmness of the soldiers before the battle. The trials of the war had a beneficial effect on the development of Tolstoy's personality and helped shape his literary talent. Returning, Tolstoy wrote down in his famous diary the idea of ​​a novel about four epochs of development: "Childhood", "Adolescence", "Youth" and "Youth".

Russian expeditions deep into the Caucasus were often cruel: soldiers destroyed the crops of local residents, stole livestock, and ravaged villages. Tolstoy was against this, although on the whole he considered the war just. He admired nature, the Cossacks, made friends with many highlanders, for example, his friend Sado managed to free him from a long-standing debt of 500 rubles. The writer decides to stay in the Caucasus. In the fall, he enters military service, passes the exam for the rank of cadet with the highest scores and becomes a fireworker in the artillery brigade. A new round of war has begun. Tolstoy participated in many campaigns, distinguished himself in a clash on the Dzhalka River and on the Michika River, where he almost died when a cannon ball hit the wheel of his cannon.

To Tolstoy comes literary success. He sends Nekrasov the story "Childhood", and then the story "The Raid", in which he depicts the war without embellishment.

“The roof collapses there, an ax knocks on a strong tree, and they break out a wooden door; then a haystack, a fence, a saklya light up, and thick smoke rises like a column through the clear air ... two soldiers led a bound old Tatar. The old man, whose entire clothes consisted of a motley beshmet and patchwork trousers disintegrating in tatters, was so frail that his bony arms, tightly tied behind his hunched back, seemed to be barely held in his shoulders, and his bare, crooked legs moved forcibly.

The writer participated in the next trip to Chechnya, stopped in the fortress of Grozny. He begins to doubt that his participation in this war is right. The Russian command proceeded to storm Shamil's positions on the Michika River. Tolstoy distinguished himself in this battle: with a well-aimed shot from a cannon, he disabled an enemy cannon, and for this he was promised the St. George Cross. Shamil was driven out of the river, the highlanders retreated, but the writer did not receive a cross. He missed the awards ceremony because he was under arrest for not going out on guard duty. Soon, for a successful battle, he was again presented for the award of the St. George Cross; however, the writer gave it to an old soldier, who was given a lifetime pension for such an award. Russian troops approached the Gudermes River. Tolstoy returned to the village, where he lived then.

The writer's brother, Nikolai Nikolaevich, resigned. Lev Nikolaevich also begins to think about leaving military service ...

In June 1853, Tolstoy was almost captured by the Chechens when he was traveling with his kunak Sado. They were saved by a detachment sent to meet them from the fortress of Grozny.

He is fully aware of himself as a writer, understands that this is his vocation, and also that his “goal ... of life is known - the good that I owe to my subjects and my compatriots.” Impressions from the Caucasus, which so changed the young Lev Nikolayevich, ask for paper; he begins the story "Cossacks". Two years of service in the Caucasus have passed... But the war left in the past continued to excite Tolstoy throughout his life. This is evidenced by the completed in 1904 "Hadji Murad", in which the war is shown as madness, not needed by anyone except Imam Shamil and Emperor Nicholas.

The writer was not destined to leave military service. Relations with Turkey deteriorated. Nicholas I ordered to occupy Moldavia and Wallachia. The writer asks to be transferred to the active army. And how else could a person act, who, thanks to life's trials, realized that the goal of life is good, which he owes to his compatriots?

He brilliantly passed the exam for the rank of officer and in 1854 was sent to Bucharest as an ensign. As part of the Danube army, he besieged Silistria, fought at Oltenitsa, and finally spent ten months in Sevastopol.

The road to the defending city was difficult, cluttered, but Lev Nikolayevich, striving to test himself, overcame it with perseverance. And here he is in the city.

“It cannot be that at the thought that you are in Sevastopol, a feeling of some kind of courage, pride does not penetrate into your soul and that the blood does not begin to circulate faster in your veins ...”**

By that time, heavy fighting had been going on for two months. The writer talked with soldiers, residents and was delighted with their courage, much more than he imagined. On November 10, 1854, he was appointed an officer in the artillery brigade, which stood near Simferopol and did not participate in the battles. He rushed to Evpatoria, where the onslaught of the enemy intensified, and in the end arbitrarily went to Sevastopol. In March of the following year, 1855, he was assigned to the fourth bastion, which was among the most important points of defense. It was there that he was able to show his courage. In March and April there was an assault on Sevastopol. The fourth bastion was completely riddled with enemy shells, but did not let the enemy into the city. For being on the Yazonovsky redoubt during the bombardment, Tolstoy was given the rank of lieutenant and was awarded the Order of St. Anna, 4th degree, with the inscription "For Courage".

On the fourth bastion, he wrote the story "Sevastopol in December", This was the first Russian history accessible to all description of the ongoing fateful events. Tolstoy, as the author of the Sevastopol stories, was not only a writer, but also the first war correspondent. The first story was noticed by the new Emperor Alexander II, and he ordered to protect the author.

In May, the bastion was stormed again. There were so many bombs that, according to a military historian, they were like a vault of fire. Based on these impressions, Tolstoy wrote a second story, "Sevastopol in May".

June, July and part of August the writer was not in Sevastopol. On the 4th of August, Tolstoy took part in the bloodiest battle of his life and, probably, only miraculously did not die. In the battle of Chernaya, he commanded a battery. Then, due to a mistake by the command of the division of General Reada, they attacked the Fedyukhin Heights, occupied by the enemy. The allies conveniently fired cannons at the advancing Russian troops from below. Tolstoy wrote several satirical songs, one of which contained the lines:

"Like the fourth

we were not easy to carry the mountains to select

...

On the Fedyukhin Heights

There were only two companies of us,

And the regiments went.

This song was sung like a soldier's song. Some generals were hurt in the text. Tolstoy had to answer for this essay.

The relatively late beginning of the career is very characteristic of Tolstoy: he never considered himself a professional writer, understanding professionalism not in the sense of a profession that provides a livelihood, but in the sense of the predominance of literary interests. He did not take the interests of literary parties to heart, he was reluctant to talk about literature, preferring to talk about issues of faith, morality, and social relations.

Military service

As a cadet, Lev Nikolaevich remained for two years in the Caucasus, where he participated in many skirmishes with the mountaineers and was exposed to the dangers of military life in the Caucasus. He had the right to the St. George Cross, however, in accordance with his convictions, he "conceded" his fellow soldier, considering that a significant simplification of the conditions of service of a colleague is higher than personal vanity. With the outbreak of the Crimean War, Tolstoy transferred to the Danube army, participated in the battle of Oltenitsa and the siege of Silistria, and from November 1854 to the end of August 1855 was in Sevastopol.

For a long time he lived on the 4th bastion, which was often attacked, commanded a battery in the battle of Chernaya, was bombarded during the assault on Malakhov Kurgan. Tolstoy, despite all the hardships of life and the horrors of the siege, at that time wrote the story "Cutting the Forest", which reflected Caucasian impressions, and the first of the three "Sevastopol stories" - "Sevastopol in December 1854". He sent this story to Sovremennik. It was quickly published and read with interest throughout Russia, making a stunning impression of the horrors that befell the defenders of Sevastopol. The story has been seen Russian emperor Alexander II2002; he ordered to take care of the gifted officer.

Even during the life of Emperor Nicholas I, Tolstoy intended to publish together with artillery officers " cheap and popular"The magazine" Military List ", however, Tolstoy failed to implement the project of the magazine:" For the project, my Sovereign, the Emperor, most mercifully deigned to allow our articles to be printed in Invalid", - Tolstoy bitterly sneered about this in 2002.

For being at the time of the bombardment on the Yazonovsky redoubt of the fourth bastion, composure and diligence.

For the defense of Sevastopol, Tolstoy was awarded the Order of St. Anna 4th degree with the inscription "For Courage", medals "For the Defense of Sevastopol 1854-1855" and "In Memory of the War of 1853-1856." Subsequently, he was awarded two medals "In memory of the 50th anniversary of the defense of Sevastopol": silver as a participant in the defense of Sevastopol and bronze as the author of Sevastopol Tales.

Tolstoy, enjoying the reputation of a brave officer and surrounded by the splendor of fame, had every chance of a career. However, his career was blighted by writing several satirical songs stylized as soldiers. One of these songs was dedicated to the failure of the military operation for 4 years, when General Read, having misunderstood the order of the commander in chief, attacked the Fedyukhin Heights. A song called “Like the fourth number, it was not easy to take the mountains to take us away,” which touched on a number of important generals, was a huge success. For her, Lev Nikolaevich had to answer to the assistant chief of staff A. A. Yakimakh. Immediately after the assault on August 27 (September 8), Tolstoy was sent by courier to St. Petersburg, where he completed Sevastopol in May 1855. and wrote "Sevastopol in August 1855", published in the first issue of Sovremennik for 1856, already with the full signature of the author. "Sevastopol Tales" finally strengthened his reputation as a representative of a new literary generation, and in November 1856 the writer left military service forever.

As a cadet, Lev Nikolaevich remained for two years in the Caucasus, where he participated in many skirmishes with the mountaineers and was exposed to the dangers of military life in the Caucasus. He had the right to the St. George Cross, however, in accordance with his convictions, he “conceded” to his fellow soldier, believing that a significant improvement in the conditions of service of a colleague was higher than personal vanity. With the outbreak of the Crimean War, Tolstoy transferred to the Danube army, participated in the battle of Oltenitsa and the siege of Silistria, and from November 1854 to the end of August 1855 was in Sevastopol.

For a long time he lived on the 4th bastion, which was often attacked, commanded a battery in the battle of Chernaya, was bombarded during the assault on Malakhov Kurgan. Tolstoy, despite all the hardships of life and the horrors of the siege, at that time wrote the story "Cutting the Forest", which reflected Caucasian impressions, and the first of the three "Sevastopol stories" - "Sevastopol in December 1854". He sent this story to Sovremennik. It was quickly published and read with interest throughout Russia, making a stunning impression of the horrors that befell the defenders of Sevastopol. The story was seen by Russian Emperor Alexander II; he ordered to take care of the gifted officer.

Even during the life of Emperor Nicholas I, Tolstoy intended to publish together with artillery officers " cheap and popular"The magazine" Military List ", however, Tolstoy failed to implement the project of the magazine:" For the project, my Sovereign Emperor, most merciful, deigned to allow our articles to be printed in Invalide", - Tolstoy bitterly sneered about this.

For the defense of Sevastopol, Tolstoy was awarded the Order of St. Anna 4th degree with the inscription "For Courage", medals "For the Defense of Sevastopol 1854-1855" and "In Memory of the War of 1853-1856". Subsequently, he was awarded two medals "In memory of the 50th anniversary of the defense of Sevastopol": silver as a participant in the defense of Sevastopol and bronze as the author of Sevastopol Tales.

Tolstoy, enjoying the reputation of a brave officer and surrounded by the splendor of fame, had every chance of a career. However, his career was blighted by writing several satirical songs stylized as soldiers. One of these songs was dedicated to the failure of the military operation on August 4 (16), 1855, when General Read, having misunderstood the order of the commander in chief, attacked the Fedyukhin Heights. A song called “Like the fourth number, it was not easy to take the mountains to take us away,” which touched on a number of important generals, was a huge success. For her, Lev Nikolaevich had to answer to the assistant chief of staff A. A. Yakimakh. Immediately after the assault on August 27 (September 8), Tolstoy was sent by courier to St. Petersburg, where he completed Sevastopol in May 1855. and wrote "Sevastopol in August 1855", published in the first issue of Sovremennik for 1856, already with the full signature of the author. "Sevastopol Tales" finally strengthened his reputation as a representative of a new literary generation, and in November 1856 the writer left military service forever.