Articles
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Leo Tolstoy’s travels in Europe20.12.2022
In St Petersburg Tolstoy was welcomed in the salons of the upper classes and in literary circles. He became the closest of friends with Turgenev, with whom he shared a flat for some time. Turgenev introduced him to the Sovremennik circle, and Tolstoy then established friendships with such famous writers as Nekrasov, Goncharov, Panayev, Grigorovich, Druzhinin, Sollogub.
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Friends and loved ones of Leo Tolstoy20.12.2022
The subject of Tolstoy’s surroundings is not only interesting in itself, but also extremely important for a deeper understanding of the great writer’s personality. Leo Tolstoy’s surroundings are organically part of his biography and work, and our understanding of his legacy depends to a large extent on our knowledge of the environment in which he lived and worked.
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What is Tolstoy’s Hajji Murat about?20.12.2022
«Hajji Murat is the story of an Avar field commander who goes over to the side of the Russians during the Caucasian War. With their help he expects to rescue his family, captured by Imam Shamil, but he soon becomes a prisoner of the imperial administration, decides to escape and dies in a shoot-out. «Khadzhi-Murat» is one of Tolstoy’s last works, the writer’s concluding statement on personal freedom and what suppresses it. It is a ruthless characterization of Russian colonial policy that relies on documented facts. It is also a triumph of the artistic method which allows the author to describe, with equal depth, military clashes and secular encounters, soldiers and leaders, Russians and Highlanders, life and death.
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What is After the Ball about?20.12.2022
In ‘After the Ball’ Leo Tolstoy wanted to make it clear to readers that only the man himself is the creator of his future. The final choice — to go the way of good or evil — always rests on his shoulders.
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Analysis of the Caucasian prisoner of war20.12.2022
Tolstoy and his friend Sado accompanied the wagon train to the Grozny fortress, but they were moving very slowly. Bored, the friends decided to overtake the wagon and go a little faster. Breaking away from the others, the young men were ambushed by the Chechens. The story would have ended much worse if the Chechens had not planned to take their comrades alive and shoot them. The horses under Lev and Sado were frisky and were able to gallop away from the enemy. Unfortunately, of the mounted men escorting the wagon, a young officer was injured and his horse was shot. The animal fell over and crushed the young man, and the Chechens who approached hacked the rider to pieces. What happened happened sticks in the writer’s heart, and the story «The Prisoner of the Caucasus» was first published in the «Zarya» magazine in 1872.
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What is Childhood about?20.12.2022
The short story Childhood is Leo Tolstoy’s first work. First published in 1852.
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The writing of Anna Karenina20.12.2022
About several families, happy in the same way and unhappy in different ways. About life in Russia in the 1870s on its different levels, from St Petersburg high society to peasant backyards. About a secular woman who abandons her family for love, destroying her own and others’ lives, and about an idealistic landlord who seeks love and truth in his family. About the overt and covert motives that drive people, about the mysteries of the soul and the properties of passion.
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What is War and Peace about?20.12.2022
«War and peace» belongs to the literary trend of realism: the book describes in detail a number of key historical events, depicts characters typical of Russian society, the main conflict is «hero and society». The genre of the work is novel epic: War and Peace includes both features of the novel (the presence of several plot lines, the description of the development of characters and crisis moments in their fate) and the epic (global historical events, the all-encompassing nature of the depiction of reality). In the novel Tolstoy touches on many «eternal» themes: love, friendship, fathers and children, the search for the meaning of life, the confrontation of war and peace, both in a global sense, and in the souls of the characters.
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A few interesting lines about Leo Tolstoy10.12.2022
Leo Tolstoy had no higher education and did not aspire to it. He studied at Kazan University for only 3 years. He started reading the Enlighteners and decided that he did not need a university, he could educate himself. And he did.
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How did Leo Tolstoy spend the last days of his life?10.12.2022
Ten days before his death, the 82-year-old writer literally ran away from home and hid from his wife. What happened to him before and after his escape, who was with him in those days — and how Russia reacted to the news of the genius’ death.
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