The meal does not depend on the amount of money, but on the way of thinking and on our attitude to life. In Yasnaya Polyana, this process had its own unique gastronomic entourage, the quintessence of which was the Ankov pie. Stubborn everyday life was manifested here in such trifles as table aromas, the smell of coffee, tea drinking under linden trees among flower beds, hearty dinners that began at the sound of a bell. Emile Zola's winged witticism "man is what he eats" was supplemented here with one more component - how he is eating.
Interest in digestive processes was shown not only by the author of Gargantua and Pantagruel, but also by the creator of Ulysses. Leo Tolstoy did not stand aside. He contributed to the understanding of the burning topic associated with the gastronomic addictions of his heroes. So, for example, Pierre Bezukhov loved to have a good dinner and drink well, although he considered it immoral and humiliating, he could not refrain from bachelor entertainment, in which he certainly participated. Tolstoy built his literary image not without the help of a gastronomic concept, which changed more than once during his long life. He paid due attention to issues related to the work of the intestines, having gone a long way from a gourmet to an ascetic vegetarian. During his life he visited
the role of a servant of the stomach, and an incredible gourmet, glutton, a fan of simple healthy food. We are interested in everything in the fate of the classic, including whether he liked to “eat”, like Turgenev, could he eat up to 30 pancakes in one sitting, like Pushkin, did he receive guests in a dressing gown and nightcap like Tyutchev?
The grandfather of Lev Nikolaevich, I. A. Tolstoy, always had exclusively French wines, and Bohemian crystal. He was extremely hospitable, very cheerful and generous. The whole neighborhood came to visit him, and he "fed and soldered" everyone, thus squandering the huge fortune of his wife, a great lover of giving balls. He was a classic example of the old nobility. The brilliant grandson could not help but describe his colorful ancestor on the pages of War and Peace. Count I. A. Tolstoy was the foreman on duty at the Moscow English Club. He had the opportunity to act as a “priest of the feast” and guardian of the dinner ritual, demonstrating his skills during the club gala dinner in honor of Bagration, who won the Battle of Shengraben. “The table was set for 300, that is, for all members of the club and 50 guests. The decoration was magnificent, there is nothing to say about provisions. Everything that could be found of the best and rarest of meats, fish, herbs, wines and fruits, everything was found and bought at a high price. Much was delivered by rich owners of greenhouses near Moscow free of charge. Everyone vied with each other trying to show their zeal and participation in the treat, ”S.P. Zhikharev reported about this significant event in the Russian Archives. In the novel “War and Peace”, Tolstoy described the famous dinner given in honor of Bagration, following the story of Zhikharev in everything, supplementing it with artistic details - the participation of I. A. Rostov in this solemn event: “In all the rooms of the English Club there was a groan of talking voices ... and, like bees on a spring migration, scurried back and forth”, “300 people settled in the dining room according to rank and importance, who is more important, closer to the honored guest ... Lunches, lean and modest, were magnificent ... On the second course, along with
Polinskaya sterlet, began to pour champagne. After the fish - toast ... "
AT Everyday life the surroundings were much more modest, but the dinners were just as "deadly full." Depending on whether the meal was fast or modest, formal or ordinary. The dishes of each new "change" - cold, hot, sweet, were prepared by a special chef. The table was set by waiters, who were about the same number as those sitting at the table. Meals were served in "changes" from the "white kitchen" to the dining room. Standard set - four courses, three dishes each. Lunch lasted about two hours. Really dined always at a party. It happened even without silver, precious china and crystal, but without fail in the presence of exquisite cleanliness of the tablecloth and excellently starched napkins.
According to experts in the culinary arts, everyone eats, but only a select few dine. The art of dining includes a triad: where and how to dine, with whom to dine, and finally, what to eat. These components affect the quality of life. But not only. As the poet argued, inspiration depends on nutritious and regular food.
To the question of where to sit and how to dine, Leo Tolstoy answered, describing the countess's name day in War and Peace: a table for eighty couverts (cutlery. - //. I), and, looking at the waiters, who wore silver and porcelain, arranged tables and unrolled damask tablecloths, called Dmitry Vasilyevich, a nobleman who was engaged in all his affairs, and said: " Well, well, Mitenka, see that everything is fine. With pleasure, looking around the huge parted table, he added: “The main thing is serving. That's it ... "Soon the sounds of home music were replaced by the sounds of knives and forks, the voice of the guests, the quiet steps of the waiters ...". At one end of the table the countess sat at the head; at the other end, the count and the male guests; on one side of the long table are older youths; on the other - children, tutors and governesses. The owner of the table peeked out from behind the crystal, bottles and fruit vases, pouring
blame your neighbors. The countess looked at the guests from behind the pineapples, not forgetting the duties of the hostess. At the ladies' end there was a steady babble, and at the men's end the voices grew louder and louder. Soups were served, one a la tortue(tortoiseshell. - N.N.), kulebyaki, hazel grouse. The butler poured the wine, holding the bottle wrapped in a napkin. The wines served were Drey-Madeira, Hungarian and Rhine wine. Each device had four crystal glasses with the count's monogram.
During the time of I. A. Tolstoy and his literary counterpart, the dishes were simple: cabbage soup, okroshka, corned beef, porridge, which were served in large quantities. Lunches and dinners were prepared anew each time and were very satisfying. All dishes were placed on the table at the same time. Up to eight dishes were prepared for dinner parties. In the summer, a servant with a broom was assigned to such meals to drive away evil flies from those present. All sorts of snacks and snacks were accompanied by a drink in a glass. The Russian table was mostly preserved during Lent, since in the 70s of the 18th century the “European” style of dinner came into fashion, when dishes were placed on a separate table, and footmen carried them around the table, placing food directly on plates. Dinners on hastily” were prepared from chickens and eggs, which were in abundance in the estate. Quite a different matter - fish dishes, which were considered overhead. Valuable fish had to be bought. Everything else - meat, vegetables, fruits, including exotic ones, were their own. Tolstoy brilliantly described "sensual", delicious meals in his novels, fully demonstrating his perfection as a "seer of the flesh."
The cult of food has been familiar to him since childhood. Chef Nikolai Mikhailovich Rumyantsev prepared "excellent meals", which to a large extent contributed to the fact that little Lyova grew up healthy. He remembered the skill of the confectioner Maxim Ivanovich, delicious dinners of five or six courses, desserts, jams, leftovers, pies, named in honor of the cook "Nikolai's sighs." From food, he did not recognize, perhaps, only the broth. For the purchase of spices, vegetable oil and coffee in Yasnaya Polyana,
it ran from 100 to 125 rubles a month. Everything else - poultry, meat, milk and fish - was his own.
As a young man, Tolstoy became acquainted with Caucasian cuisine. In Tiflis, he visited dukhans, small restaurants in which they hung mutton, fresh, fatty, very attractive, and bunches of grapes. Since then, he fell in love with grapes and once confessed to S. Vengerov: “I love grapes, in the summer I want to eat half a pound of it, but you can’t: your conscience will see.” But there was a time about which his sister's friend E. I. Sytina spoke about, when his conscience had not yet “seen”: “He once sent to buy a pound of large grapes, which then cost fifty kopecks, Lev Nikolayevich at that time loved to feast, like all non-smokers. Maria Nikolaevna (the writer's sister. - N.N.) and I stuck around right there. When the bellhop brought the grapes, Lev Nikolayevich took it in his hands and, after a moment's thought, remarked shyly and jokingly:
You know, mesdames, if this pound is divided into three parts, then no one will have any pleasure, I'd rather eat it all.
Of course, we reluctantly agreed and gave Lev Nikolaevich the Lion's share in its entirety. He ate and we< мотрели. Однако же ему становилось совестно, и он, держа виноград, прерывал еду словами:
But still, mesdames, don't you want to?!
Every time we generously refused.
The writer also had other addictions that contributed to the awakening of the imagination, for example, coffee, tea, chocolate, Einem sweets. He was sweet - I yu, put a large bonbonniere in front of him, chose from her favorite chocolates with filling, I yu did not chew them, but slowly sucked to prolong the pleasure.
Coffee, "the wonderful gift of happy Arabia," constantly caressed his palate. He got up early and met the day with a cup of coffee, which was served to him on a tray in a small cup. Holding her by the handle with two fingers, thumb and forefinger, he slowly drank coffee in small sips, each sip accompanied by an extended half-sigh: ffu! Having finished his coffee, he, as usual, looked into the cup, clearly regretting that in
Shaya, together with the hero of "Sentimental Journey", a meat dish with spices, developed in himself a sacred attitude to food, reconciling the soul with the body. He understood the intricacies of an exquisite feast, which did not involve noise and an abundance of servants. The beauty of the dinners lay in something completely different - in the decoration of the space, the venue for the feast and the luxury of communication. This was the main tuning fork of the dinner.
In Paris he "dined at Philippe", in " Restaurant Philippe”, which was considered one of the best restaurants. Often visited Club des Grands Estomacs(Club of big stomachs. - I am), where connoisseurs of good cuisine gathered; visited the restaurant many times "Les Plaisires de Paris" famous fish dishes(the regulars of this restaurant include his remark “cute eccentrics”), could not pass by Freres Provensaux"(" Provencal brothers. - I. I), an old restaurant in the Palais Royal, which was very popular. Tolstoy also went to Cafd-desAveugles"(" Cafe for the Blind. - I. I), located under the arch of the Palais Royal and named after the orchestra of blind musicians who played in it. The public was attracted here by the famous ventriloquist ( ventrioque) - gigantic growth drummer
In St. Petersburg, Tolstoy visited the Passage confectionery, the restaurants of Saint-Georges and Clay, dined at Chevalier's, where, according to his own recollections, he "drank well." Participated in artistic lunches and dinners, visited the famous, so-called "general" Nekrasov's dinners, Turgenev's modest feasts, as well as social events organized by the editors of Sovremennik.
At the age of 25, Tolstoy worked out the "Rules" for himself, one of which was to "be consistent in drink and food." However, two years later he admitted that he was overeating. Relatives have repeatedly noticed his great appetite, which did not leave him even in old age. Watching him during dinner, Alexandra Andreevna Tolstaya "always found that he was eating, like a hungry person, too soon and too greedily." Once during a fast, when adults were served exclusively lenten dishes, and meat dishes were served to children, Leo
Nikolayevich turned to his son Ilya with a request to "serve cutlets." Sofya Andreevna, hearing this, said that he probably forgot that "today is fasting." And in response I heard: No, I didn’t forget, I will no longer fast and don’t order fasting for me anymore. To the horror of those around him, Lev Nikolaevich began to feast on cutlets and praise them. Subsequently, the behavior of the father led to the "religious indifference" of the children. Only at the end of his life did he come to the conclusion that one cannot “make pleasure” out of food. “If people only ate when they were very hungry, and ate simple, clean and healthy food, then they would not know diseases.”
Usually, sitting down at the dinner table, Tolstoy lifted his large beard with his left hand, and with his right hand thrust the end of a snow-white napkin behind the collar of his blouse. The rest of it he carefully straightened on his chest. All this was done with graceful, polished and habitual movements. Having finished the meal, he hurriedly pulled the end of the napkin from under the collar of his blouse, crumpled it up, laid it on the table, put his fingers in a graceful semicircle on the table and, leaning on them, easily, as if on springs, rose and pushed back the chair. Tolstoy knew the cultural semantics of the meal thoroughly, demonstrating it with brilliance not only in everyday life, but also in his novels.
A writer with such a fondness for good food, of which there is so much evidence, who attached so much importance to the culture of food, could easily disregard conventions. Bachelor officer life accustomed Tolstoy to the Spartan way of life. All the Tolstoy brothers in this aspiration "read" something family. Here is how their friend, the poet Afanasy Fet, told about it. He recalled his trip to Nikolskoye on Trinity Day to the dear Tolstoy brothers, who had a meal in his honor: “Passing past a small, apparently kitchen window, I spotted a scalded and plucked chicken on the windowsill, convulsively pressing its wings to its own navel and liver ... Servant led from the passage into a fairly spacious room with two lights. Around the walls stretched calico, Turkish sofas interspersed with a hundred
rinny chairs and armchairs. In front of the sofa, to the right of the entrance, there was a table, and above the sofa were deer antlers and elk antlers, with Oriental, Circassian guns hung on them. This weapon not only threw itself into the eyes of the guests, but also reminded of itself those sitting on the sofa and forgetting about their existence with unexpected blows to the back of the head. In the front corner was a huge image of the Savior in a silver robe ... It was clear that Nikolai Nikolayevich, who either lived in Moscow, or with two brothers and his beloved sister, or with us or on a hunt, looked at the Nikolsky wing not as a permanent, settled home, requiring some support, but as a temporary camp apartment, in which they use what they can, without sacrificing anything for the improvement. Even flies testified to such a temporary revival of the secluded Nikolsky wing.
While no one entered the large room, they were almost invisible there, but with the movement of people, a huge swarm of flies, silently sitting on the walls and deer antlers, little by little took off and filled the room in incredible numbers. About this, Lev Nikolaevich, with his characteristic vigilance and figurativeness, said: “When a brother is not at home, they don’t bring anything edible to the wing, and flies, obedient to fate, silently sit down on the walls, but as soon as he returns, the most energetic begin to talk a little with their neighbors: "There he is, there he has come; now he will go to the closet and drink vodka; now bring bread and snacks. Well, yes, well, well; get up more friendly." And the room is filled with flies ... "After all, such vile ones, - says the brother, - I didn’t have time to pour glasses, but already two tumbled in" "...
At about five o'clock in the evening, the servant laid three cutlery on the table in front of the sofa, placing an old silver spoon with an iron fork and a knife with wooden handles by each plate. When the lid was removed from the soup cup, we immediately recognized the familiar chicken, cut into pieces, while pouring the soup. Behind the soup was a salutary dish in the landowners' households, over which the late Pikulin
rolled: spinach with eggs and croutons. Then three small chickens and a bowl of young lettuce appeared on the platter.
Why didn't you serve mustard or vinegar? - asked Nikolai Nikolaevich.
And the servant immediately corrected his negligence by putting mustard in a fondant jar and vinegar in a bottle of Musatov's cologne on the table.
While the zealous host on a separate plate was stirring with the iron blade of the knife the dressing he had composed for the salad, the vinegar, oxidizing the iron, managed to greatly emphasize the sauce; but then, when the owner began to stir the salad with the same knife and fork, the latter came out completely "under the black." So unpretentious, in the spirit of the march, a festive dinner was organized by Nikolai Tolstoy.
After marriage, much has changed in the daily life of Leo Tolstoy. In Yasnaya Polyana, they sat down at the table at the same time: at nine in the morning they drank coffee or tea, at one in the afternoon they had breakfast, at four they drank coffee, at six they dined, and at eight in the evening they ate dinner, after which they again drank tea. At eleven everyone went to bed.
And what did the inhabitants of Yasnaya Polyana eat, besides the vegetables grown here? After all, not all of them were vegetarians, like Tolstoy and his daughters. For half a year they ate about ten pounds of butter, six and a half pounds of cream, three pounds of sour cream, two and a half pounds of cottage cheese, and also about ten pounds of milk. And this, as the writer's wife noted in her statements, was intended exclusively for the "Count's House". There was another additional list, entitled "For the servants", which listed: 51 pounds of milk, 29 pounds of butter, 12 pounds of cream and 24 pounds of cottage cheese. For six months in Yasnaya Polyana they ate about 450 chicken eggs.
The consumption of such a quantity of products was possible thanks to a well-developed subsistence economy, in which there were 18 cows, 12 calves, 3 bulls and 7 cows, 21 rams, 38 horses, 18 old and 15 young chickens, 18 turkeys, 5 drakes and 16 ducks, 17 pigs. Impressive farm, isn't it? Especially if
take into account that the family had broken up by this time, many children lived separately on their estates.
Jam in Yasnaya Polyana was brewed according to the recipe of the Moscow doctor Anke, whose secret was to add as little water as possible. They drank tea from Batashov's samovar. Jam was served for every taste: from pineapple strawberries and Spanish strawberries, from red and green gooseberries, from pears, melons, lingonberries, Chinese, cherries, plums and currants. In gooseberry jam, as in apple jam, either vanilla or lemon was certainly added. Jelly was also prepared for the future, mainly from red currants and bitter rowan. Starting from June, there was an intensive preparation of jam for the winter. Stocks were considerable: from 46 to 50 cans. The jam did not have time to be eaten in one winter, and it was preserved until the next year.
A huge farm demanded seeds for planting garden crops, and Sofya Andreevna regularly sent applications for them to Myasnitskaya in Moscow. She purchased seeds of cucumbers, radishes, beets, cabbages, carrots, lettuce, radishes, spinach, parsnips, savory, parsley, celery, leeks, beans, watermelons, melons for the amount of 16 rubles 27 kopecks. Flower seeds were ordered for a large amount - for 28 rubles 55 kopecks. These are asters, balsam, immortelle, verbena, viola, carnations, petunias, gillyflowers, nasturtiums, sweet peas, primrose, phloxes and much more.
When the family gathered for tea around the multi-layered Ankov pie, made from crumbly shortcrust pastry, whose cakes were soaked with lemon filling, it seemed that happiness reigned in the house.
We offer admirers of culinary art the recipe for the Anke pie, which was baked in Yasnaya Polyana for the holiday:
1 lb flour (lb - 453 g), "/g lb butter,"/4 lb crushed sugar, 3 egg yolks, 1 glass of water. Oil, to be straight from the cellar, colder.
Sour cream pie (Anke) was also popular:
10 eggs, 20 tablespoons of sour cream, a cup of sugar,
2 table spoons of flour. Put the bottom of the salad bowl with jam, pour this mass into it and put in the oven.
This Ankov pie, which became a symbol of prosperity and stability of the Tolstoy family, was wonderfully prepared by the cook Nikolai, who came from the Bers family and took deep roots in Yasnaya Polyana. Tutors, lessons, babies fed by Sofya Andreevna, family foundations - all this was part of his worries. For good service, he was allowed to "eat delicious food and sleep on an expensive mattress.
Leo Tolstoy, like Pushkin, who ate "30 pieces of pancakes" at a time, washed down with a sip of water, without experiencing "the slightest heaviness in the stomach", could eat a huge amount of pancakes. Only in his old age did the writer come to the idea that it was necessary to “eat slowly, chew well and take your time”, unlike, for example, how little Seryozha eats. "Why are you eating so fast? the mother once asked the child. “If I ate slowly, I wouldn’t get pancakes, others would eat them.” Tolstoy as well as great poet, adored baked potato. It was interesting to watch him eat it. First, he poured a small pile of salt on a plate, put a piece of butter near it, then took a large potato with a golden crust from a bowl covered with a white napkin, cut it in half. In order not to burn his fingers, he put one half of it on the corner of a napkin that hugged his chest, and all the time held it in front of him in his left hand. In his right he held a teaspoon, with which he broke off a piece of butter on a plate and touched the salt with it. After that, he took out a piece of potato from the peel with a spoon, blew on it to cool it, and then ate it. So, with great pleasure, he ate three potatoes.
Leo Tolstoy, without error, recognized the temperament, the way of thinking of a person by his culinary preferences. In his works, the writer paid great attention not only to the food itself, but also to the atmosphere in which the dinner takes place, and especially to communication during the meal, the semantics of the behavior of those sitting at the table. The meal has its own language, which was deciphered by
Tolstoy, describing the dinners of Steve Oblonsky and Konstantin Levin in the novel Anna Karenina:
“- To "England" or to "Hermitage"?
I don't care.
Well, to "England," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, choosing "England" because he owed more money there, in "England," than in the "Hermitage." Therefore, he considered it bad to avoid this hotel.
On the way to the restaurant, each of Tolstoy's heroes thinks about his own: "Levin thought about what this change in expression on Kitty's face meant, and then assured himself that there was hope, then he came to despair -
Stepan Arkadyevitch composed the menu on the way.
For one, dinner with its materiality is something vulgar, and for another - poetic and ritual.
“When Levin entered the hotel with Oblonsky, he could not fail to notice a certain peculiarity of expression, a kind of restrained radiance on the face and in the whole figure of Stepan Arkadyevitch ...
Here, Your Excellency ... - said a particularly sticky old whitish Tatar with a wide pelvis and a tailcoat that diverged over it. “Give me a hat, your excellency,” he said to Levin, as a token of respect for Stepan Arkadyevitch, courting his guest as well.
So why not start with oysters and then change the whole plan? BUT?
I don't care. Shchi and porridge are best for me; but that's not the case here.
Porridge, a la russe, will you? - said the Tatar, like a nurse over a child, bending over Levin.
No, no jokes; whatever you choose is fine. I ran on skates, and I want to eat. And don't think,' he added, noticing the dissatisfied expression on Oblonsky's face, 'that I don't appreciate your choice. I am happy to eat well.
Still would! Whatever you say, this is one of the pleasures of life,” said Stepan Arkadyevitch. - Well, give us, my brother, two oysters, or a few - three dozen, soup with roots ...
Prentanier, - picked up the Tatar. But Stepan Arkadyevitch evidently did not want to please him by naming the dish in French.
With roots, you know? Then turbot with thick sauce, then ... roast beef; yeah, make sure it's good. Yes, capons, or something, well, and canned food.
The Tartar, remembering Stepan Arkadyevitch's manner of not naming food according to the French map, did not repeat after him, but took the pleasure of repeating the entire order according to the map: "Soup prentanière, turbot sos Beaumarchais, poulard a lestragon, macedouin de fruy..."
Will you order your cheese?
Well, yes, parmesan. Or do you love someone else?
No, I don't care, - Levin said, unable to hold back his smiles.
It is curious that Levin and Oblonsky seem to speak different languages, but this does not prevent them from understanding each other.
Tolstoy was well versed in all the intricacies of "artistic" dinners, for which a special "program" was being prepared, providing for the composition, symmetry, "pointe" of this event. Steve Oblonsky, as the reader has just seen, "loved to dine." But even more he liked to give a dinner refined in quality. This concerned not only dishes and drinks, but also the choice of invited persons. The dinner program this time was represented by live fish, asparagus, wonderful roast beef and fine wines. Inviting nobles to dinner was a kind of ritual.
In the novel Resurrection, Tolstoy described an English-style dinner that had become fashionable among the nobility, when all the dishes were put on the table without following the sequence. By the final part of the feast served "goodies". At the same time, no one cut the dishes. Dinner at Charsky's on the pages of Tolstoy's novel was already taking place in the context of new traditions.
We dined at Countess Ekaterina Ivanovna's at half past seven, and dinner was served in a new way, still unknown to Nekhludoff. The dishes were put on the table, and the footmen immediately left, so that the diners themselves
take the food they like. The men did not allow the ladies to bother themselves with unnecessary movements and, like the stronger sex, courageously bore the whole burden of serving the ladies and themselves food and pouring drinks. When one dish was eaten, the countess pressed the button of the electric bell on the table, and the lackeys silently entered, quickly cleaned up, changed the appliances and brought the next change. The dinner was exquisite, and so were the wines. A French chef and two assistants worked in a large bright kitchen. Six of us dined: the count and the countess, their son, a sullen officer of the guards, who rested his elbows on the table, Nekhlyudov, a French lecturer, and the count's chief administrator, who had come from the village. Well, the dinner turned out to be quite dapper. Only truffles were absent here, as well as all kinds of bronze antique jewelry, which were no longer aesthetic attributes.
By this time, the French serving had been ousted from the table, as well as toasts in honor of the chefs. After all, even Baudelaire said that with Balzac, for example, any cook was distinguished by talent.
The description of dinners in Tolstoy's texts is very eloquent and significant. So, in the novel "Resurrection" the majesty of barmaids, starched napkins tucked behind a waistcoat, sensual lips of participants in a feast with fat necks, silver vases, large pouring spoons, handsome lackeys with sideburns, lobsters, caviar, cheeses, plump figures - all this, starting from the doorman to flattering lackeys, evoked a protest feeling in Dmitry Nekhlyudov.
Where, how and with whom to dine? Tolstoy believed that this is a whole science with which you can demonstrate savoir invre, his tact and his importance in society. A good dish is the privilege of the cook, and wine was considered the prerogative of the owner himself. During dinners, unlike parties, it was not permissible to talk, argue, and reason a lot. Here it was appropriate to exchange short witty phrases that tickle the interlocutor's ear. The Yasnaya Polyana cellars were filled with the home-made foamy wine of the Perfilyevs, made on the basis of birch
crushed coal and yeast from grape white wine, Zakharyinka water, champagne infused on currant leaves with the addition of yeast and lemons, Shostak's kvass and Prince Shakhovsky's beer. All these drinks endowed the owner of Yasnaya Polyana with a pleasant thought, joy, and a sense of flight. He experienced the beneficial effect of wine, its life-giving power until the end of his life. Erasmus of Rotterdam even tried to treat his diseased kidneys with wine. A glass of good wine, drunk at the moment of creativity, helped Tolstoy to get off the ground, to rise to the heights of Mont Blanc. The main thing, in his opinion, was not to overdo it. With bitterness, he noticed places in Schiller's masterpieces that indicated that their author drank much more champagne than usual. In everything, including wine, Tolstoy appreciated the sense of proportion, the famous "a little bit". Only in this way "the wine of her charms can go to the head," he liked to talk about his heroine Natasha Rostova.
Before the crisis, the writer liked to smoke bulk cigarettes stuffed with his wife, he liked to drink a homemade herbalist or a glass of white Vorontsov wine before dinner. Despite the almost complete absence of teeth, he continued to eat quickly, chewing food poorly. Realizing that it was harmful, he would say: “To be healthy, you need to walk well and chew well.” When he was sick, he was treated with wine, usually strong - Madeira or port wine. "Alcohol and nicotine", consumed in large quantities, he considered a great sin. Nevertheless, he called wine the most “great deprivation”.
Tolstoy also considered meat-eating a great sin. In his opinion, the cutting of chickens, their heart-rending cries, beating on the ground, wiping bloody knives on the grass most of all interfered with the writing process. How can you eat them after that! The writer's sons claimed that, in spite of everything, it was still very tasty, and his wife referred to the servants who wanted to eat meat. Tolstoy believed that in 40 years educated people would stop eating meat and become vegetarians. He shared the concept of the American nutritionist Haig, which
was that meat and legumes should not be consumed because of their harmful effects on uric acid. Therefore, he limited food intake to two times a day, and water to 30 ounces, that is, up to five glasses. He started the morning with fresh apples. The most difficult thing for him was to quit smoking, as well as to give up sturgeon. But, according to Sofya Andreevna, Tolstoy was sometimes tempted by meat dishes.
Having finished his morning work, Tolstoy went out for breakfast, ate a soft-boiled egg quickly and with indifference: dissolved it in a small glass and crumbled a piece into it. white bread. Then he ate another small portion of buckwheat porridge. Dinner was usually served at six o'clock. Lev Nikolayevich, as a rule, was late and appeared when the first course had already been eaten. He rarely talked about his favorite dishes, as, indeed, about the food itself. His lunch consisted of soup, flour or dairy dishes, and sweets for dessert. In summer, berries were also served on the table. Sofya Andreevna used to prepare tea for her husband on a spirit lamp, and Tolstoy jokingly remarked that she should have married Robinson, who milked the llama.
But more often Tolstoy himself prepared an unpretentious dinner for himself. He poured water from the samovar into a saucepan, poured a few tablespoons of flour into it, added lemon, put the saucepan on the spirit lamp. Then, with great appetite, he took to the stew. He drank tea with lemon, ate raisins instead of sugar. For dinner, he usually cooked himself porridge from oatmeal, which Sofya Andreevna herself bought for him in boxes.
Breakfast in the hall is usually alone. Ate or olive oil with lemon juice and white bread, or cheese, brought by the doctor Makovitsky from Slovakia, washed down with tea with cognac. He gravitated more and more to the “lonely feast”. Sometimes he took a cup of tea with bagels and went into the office.
Vegetarianism in Yasnaya Polyana made life extremely difficult for the hostess, dividing the family into two camps. One day Sofya Andreevna solemnly announced at the table that their she will never "allow children to become vegetarians." With their she called those who were not yet
twelve years old. She was convinced that the food her husband used - bread, potatoes, cabbage, mushrooms - was very harmful to his chronically diseased liver. During the next bile attacks, she skillfully poured meat broths into all his dishes, and Lev Nikolaevich did not notice this or did not want to notice, as it happened, they say, with some monks.
At one o'clock in the afternoon they usually had breakfast at home. At two o'clock, after the end of the general breakfast, when the dishes were still on the table, the writer appeared in the hall. At this time, someone from those present ordered breakfast to be served to Lev Nikolaevich. A few minutes later, a servant brought warmed-up oatmeal and a small pot of yogurt. And so - every day - the same thing.
Lev Nikolaevich had his own menu. The time of his meal was not determined in advance, and Sofya Andreyevna complained that she had to put already cooked oatmeal or beans in the oven twice and keep them there for a very long time. As a result, they became barely edible. It happened that the writer skipped the first breakfast at all.
Lev Nikolaevich liked to crumble an egg into oatmeal. The result was a grayish-yellowish mass, unattractive in appearance. He ate it with a dessert spoon, chewing it slightly. It would be hard to guess that he has no teeth at all. He was not yet forty years old when he lost them. He usually gave himself a second portion and ate it with no less appetite than the first, saying: “The good thing about oatmeal is that you can never finish it. I can not stop". Doctors believed that Tolstoy was not eating properly, eating too much. Indeed, he often ate two or four eggs a day and ate a lot of bread. Doctors advised him to lead a lifestyle that was more in line with an elderly and diseased person. But he didn't want it. As O.K. Diteriks recalled on January 2, 1902, Tolstoy “drank up to three bottles of kefir, five eggs, several cups of coffee with lemon a day, ate oatmeal or rice puree three times, puffed up cake or something like that.” And during the illness, sometimes he did not eat anything for more than two days.
The passion for Tolstoy vegetarianism aroused indignation in Sofya Andreevna, who was also joined by her sister-in-law. Together, they reproached Lev Nikolayevich for confusing his daughters with his refusal to eat meat, who, due to vegetarianism, became “green and thin.” He said that he had absolutely nothing to do with it, that this was their conscious choice, dictated by inner convictions. The wife, however, was not shy in expressions, called him a "fool", and her daughters - sottes(stupid. - N.N.). In a word, the scandal flared up from scratch. Lev Nikolaevich had to constantly laugh it off.
In fact, he gave great value vegetarianism in the context of ongoing social addictions associated with the emergence of new symbols. He lamented that in Moscow, along with such religious and scientific churches as the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and Moscow University, there was also a “temple of gluttony” - Eliseev’s store on Tverskaya Street, which took possession of the stomachs of the townspeople.
Lev Nikolayevich himself did not always stand the test of strength. Therefore, sometimes such entries appeared in his diary: “I upset my health by overeating. Ashamed!"; "I drink coffee - too much." Dr. Flerov, who treated Tolstoy at Yasnaya Polyana, told how his illustrious patient fell ill because of Shrovetide days: the writer ate as many pancakes as "enough for two healthy people."
“He dined as if alone and especially. A footman in white gloves and a tailcoat served him jelly and porridge on a silver tray, something else unsteady and, of course, harmless, ”recalled Vasily Rozanov. “He sat at one table, mingling and not mingling with the rest.”
For the first time, readers are offered the Yasnaya Polyana menu of 1910, a kind of gastronomic canon of the Tolstoy family, compiled by Sofya Andreevna and keeping her notes for cooks. At that time, Lev Nikolaevich, Sofya Andreevna and Alexandra Lvovna Tolstoy permanently lived in the estate.
Oatmeal soup. Toast. Chickens with rice. Blancmange. Table wine Bori. Put rice and hard-boiled eggs; cut them in half and lay around.
Breakfast-.
Semolina milk porridge. Scrambled eggs. Yesterday's porridge cutlets, add stewed mushrooms, cold tongue.
Pearl barley soup, pies, chicken cutlets, mashed potatoes and vermicelli, special tomato, pureed apples with prunes.
Breakfast:
Cold ham, steep oatmeal, mincemeat, pork with mushrooms.
Soup with dumplings and roots, pies, fried chicken in half, pasta, fish soufflé with carrots, raspberry jelly.
Breakfast
Rice cutlets. Potato salad with beets. Broken scrambled eggs.
Oatmeal soup, mashed potatoes, mushroom pie, rice, hollandaise or white sauce, eggs, fried chicken, 3 pieces. Pancakes for the count, yesterday's biscuit.
Breakfast:
Semolina porridge in mushroom broth, 10 soft-boiled eggs, leftover fish or fry beef that was bought.
Noodle soup, patties, fried potato patties, green beans with rice, cream in cups.
Breakfast:
Vegetable vinaigrette, milk semolina. Remaining.
Borschok, porridge in a pan, fish and potatoes, hot compote.
Breakfast:
Millet milk porridge, leftover.
Soup, pies, fried chicken, cauliflower, hot jelly. Breakfast-
Ham and eggs, baked potatoes.
Creamy oatmeal soup, yesterday's pies, fried lamb, boiled pork with potatoes. Breakfast:
Leftover fish, scrambled eggs with black bread, stuffed cutlets.
Borscht, porridge, beef cutlets, apple pancakes. Breakfast:
Vinaigrette, egg baskets.
Carrot soup, cabbage pie, roast veal, cranberry jelly, almond milk. Breakfast:
Boiled rice, gardener
Semolina soup, pies, peas with eggs, fried mushrooms. Breakfast
Cold veal, pasta.
Broth, veal cutlets, baked rice, stewed mushrooms, compote, pureed apples. Breakfast:
Eggs with ham, millet milk porridge.
Oatmeal soup, pies, roast turkey with potatoes, blancmange. Breakfast:
Stuffed tomatoes, millet porridge.
Borscht, porridge, fried veal, mushrooms, apple pies. Breakfast
Forshmak, vinaigrette.
Barley soup, pies, cue balls in sour cream, rice cakes, apple sbiten. Breakfast
Fried eggs with brown bread, carrot soufflé.
Soup, pies, vinaigrette, boiled rice, compote.
Breakfast
All the rest.
Shchi, porridge, gardener, fried mushrooms. Breakfast
Scrambled eggs, millet porridge.
Oatmeal soup, pies, fried turkey, biscuit. Breakfast
Rice porridge, scrambled eggs.
Cauliflower soup, pancake pie, stuffed tomatoes, yesterday's pie. Breakfast: Vinaigrette, porridge.
Borsch, soup, porridge in a pan, ham in a pot.
Soup pritonier with scrambled eggs, pies, duck with apples, rice patties with beans, apple cream. Breakfast:
Cold ham, fried mushrooms, millet porridge.
Soup / cabbage soup, porridge, cauliflower, cream in cups.
Breakfast:
Ask Sasha.
Rice soup, pies, boiled fish, potatoes, hot jelly. Breakfast
Fried eggs, cold ham, porridge with milk.
Borschok, porridge croutons, fish hodgepodge, rice, compote. Breakfast
Ask Sasha. Do not serve fish, leave for dinner.
Menu skip
Oatmeal soup, pies, rice cakes, potato salad with beets. Sweet roots, blancmange.
Breakfast
Smolensk porridge, soft-boiled eggs.
Rice soup. Yesterday's pies, pasta, tomatoes separately, dry peas with an egg, hot jelly.
Breakfast
Rice milk porridge, mashed potatoes, Brussels sprouts, jam.
Soup puree, croutons with cheese, jellied fish, canned peas, eggs.
Breakfast
Stuffed cabbage, lean mincemeat, herring. Tatyana Lvovna and the Count - Hercules. Count still soft-boiled eggs.
Oatmeal soup, pies, fish soufflé with carrots, hot jelly.
Breakfast
What is left, cabbage pie, if there is little left, I did not see, then add something.
Soup-pottage, pies, eggs in tomato. Fried sweet roots, cream in cups. Count the same soup as yesterday. Egg. Manioca on wine.
Breakfast
Liquid milk semolina, potato cutlets with red or white cabbage. Earl oatmeal and egg.
Pearl barley soup. We all have borscht. Pies with porridge. Rice baked, white sauce. Mashed potatoes and bruce. Pureed apples with prunes. Count - a cup of tea semolina porridge with almond milk.
Breakfast
Fried potatoes with onion, krupenik Oatmeal and egg count.
Soup with rice, pies. Fried grouse for us, downed scrambled eggs. Cauliflower, biscuit with whipped cream.
Breakfast:
Liquid milk porridge semolina. All yesterday. Fish cooked for three people, boiled potatoes. Count of oatmeal and an egg.
Pearl barley soup, small crackers, carrot sauce in milk, boil better. Eggs, tomatoes. Liquid semolina, chocolate porridge.
Breakfast:
Millet milk porridge, forshmak. Count - oatmeal and eggs.
Borschok, porridge toast. Macaroni, fried sweet roots. Baked apples.
Breakfast:
Solyanka with black croutons, buckwheat mash with onions.
Rice puree soup, pies, potato cutlets with canned peas, vermicelli, puffed pie.
Breakfast
Hercules count and egg. Fried potatoes. Syrniki.
Shchi, porridge in a pan. (Wipe the count.) Fry the black grouse. Set up egg baskets. Pear. Hollandaise sauce. Jelly.
Breakfast
Stuffed head of cabbage, liquid semolina porridge. Broken scrambled eggs.
Soup noodles, pies. Rice garnished with hard-boiled eggs, white or hollandaise sauce. Turnips and baked potatoes. Apple pies.
Breakfast
Buckwheat porridge in a pan. (Sheet torn off.)
Lazy cabbage soup, rubbed porridge for the count. Carrot sauce + fresh beans (halve on a platter). Almond soufflé, syrup.
Breakfast:
Tolstoy always came to tea on time. Over the years, he became a big fan of it, changing coffee for its "illusory energy", under the influence of which a person "writes, writes, writes quickly and composes a lot, like Balzac, but all this is useless." Tea and coffee divided the world into two halves. Russia, like England, China, India, Japan, was a stronghold of tea. It is no coincidence that A. Dumas père claimed that "the best tea is drunk in St. Petersburg."
Tolstoy, according to Russian tradition, would definitely drink tea from a glass with a glass holder. The most important thing for him in the tea ceremony was not jam or cake, but thoughtful conversations, during which only one thing was forbidden: "farting and scolding the government."
The diaries of Leo Tolstoy were found, in which he wrote down for himself the rules for developing the will and improving mental abilities. How to open up great opportunities and choose any path in life according to the writer?
Leo Tolstoy, one of the greatest Russian writers, can hardly be called a typical example of a serious and old landowner and count who writes voluminous, moralizing and complex books. Tolstoy was famous for the fact that he did not at all correspond to his count status - he was a simple, hard-working and friendly person, he loved nature and had no penchant for a luxurious life.
He also had his shortcomings - a windy and vain character, a passion for gambling, even frivolity were inherent in the still young Leo, who was expelled from Kazan University twice.
But his lively mind, together with amazing willpower, made him a talented writer and thinker, whose books are known and loved all over the world today. Apparently, it was not easy for a person with such a character to force himself to work productively and constantly, but we know the methods of developing the will of Leo Tolstoy.
Among the writer's numerous books, his diaries were found, in which he wrote down for himself the rules for developing the will and improving mental abilities. Since then, these rules have not lost their relevance, although they were written down a century and a half ago. Perhaps at the beginning of his creative way Tolstoy lacked willpower, but with the help of these guidelines, which he set for himself, he achieved great success.
The writer shared three types of will: bodily, sensual and rational. The latter was considered the most important type, but, according to Tolstoy, it is necessary to develop them simultaneously. When a person perfects all three types of will, he opens up great opportunities and can choose any path in life he wants.
Stage 1 - development of bodily will
Tolstoy mentioned that it is this species - bodily will - that is best developed in humans, because thanks to this, humans separated from the rest of the animal species. Therefore, everyone has the rudiments of bodily will, because it is an essential part of our life - it needs to be developed only a little. The only exceptions to this rule are people in their infancy or decrepitude, when a person is not yet or no longer in control of his body.
1 rule. For the development of the bodily will, Tolstoy advises to write down tasks for the day in advance - in the morning or the day before. Just make a list of tasks that need to be completed during the day, and for that day, be sure to complete everything assigned. Moreover, Leo Tolstoy points out that even if the performance of a deed causes harm, it is still desirable to perform it.
This rule not only perfectly trains the will, but also develops the mind, which will help you to make a smarter approach to compiling a list of tasks. After a day, a person usually analyzes his actions, and based on the results, he can make a more productive plan for the next day.
2 rule. You need to learn how to control your sleep. The recommended duration of sleep is about 7-9 hours, but each person is individual, seven hours is enough for one, the other feels good only after a long sleep. Therefore, you need to figure out how much sleep is optimal for you, and from that moment on, sleep exactly that many hours a day, no more and no less.
Remember that “another half hour” in the morning is, of course, pleasant, but, firstly, it weakens the bodily will, and secondly, it deprives you of energy in the morning. Tolstoy believed that in a dream the bodily will of a person does not work at all, therefore he himself reduced sleep time to a minimum and always got up before sunrise.
3 rule. It is very important to experience physical troubles and difficulties often, and at the same time not to show outwardly how difficult they are. Tolstoy wrote that it is necessary to “make regular movements”, that is, move more, do exercises, exercise every day.
You can take up running or other sports - the main thing is not to allow yourself to spend the whole day in relative peace. The writer recommended to engage in movement in the air. He not only exercised regularly, but also did hard work - for example, during the Crimean War he was considered a hardy and strong officer.
In addition, in peacetime, Tolstoy attended ballroom dancing and forced himself to dance, although he did not really like this activity. But the result of this approach is simply magnificent - Leo Tolstoy lived for more than eighty years, and even at the end of his life he could not be called decrepit, weak and infirm. It was said that when the writer was over eighty, he trotted a horse for several miles every day.
4 rule. This rule sounds short - be true to your word, including if you gave it to yourself. It would seem nothing complicated, but it is precisely this that often fails a person who decides to engage in the development of willpower.
5 rule. Don't quit what you started. This trains not only willpower, but also awareness of actions. When a person develops the habit of bringing everything to the end, he begins to imagine the result before any action. This helps to do everything calmly, holistically and in order, without fuss and fuss. Leo Tolstoy deduced this rule based on his own experience - in his youth he tried to devote himself to many different things.
6 rule. Make a table that includes all the little things of everyday life. Tolstoy entered into this table all aspects of life: how many pipes to smoke per day, how much to eat, what to eat, when to exercise, what exercises to do on which day, and so on. Such a table will help you plan time, keep track of expenses, and manage to complete all the tasks.
Scientists have long proven the benefits of the established daily routine: it is important to get up at the same time, eat at certain hours - with such habits, the body exists without drastic changes and stress, and with changes it becomes as if “disoriented”. Such advice can be found not only in Leo Tolstoy, for example, Kant also believed that life should be carefully calculated by days and hours.
This German philosopher lived strictly according to a chronometer: for decades he got up on time, did everything at the same time, so that even the inhabitants of Koenigsberg often checked their watches on it. He had everything planned down to such trifles, such as, for example, on what day what to eat, what color to wear clothes. Of course, this is an extreme, and hardly anyone wants to repeat this experience. But it is still worth introducing a routine into your life.
1908, Yasnaya Polyana. Leo Tolstoy with his beloved horse Delir
Stage 2 - development of emotional will
Emotional will, as the name implies, controls the emotions of a person, subordinates them to his goals. The writer believed that all feelings are caused by love, which can take various forms: there is pride, love for the world around, passionate love. It is important to develop all aspects of love without giving preference to any one.
When Tolstoy came up with this rule for himself, he was in an indefinite state: either he tried to renounce his desires and devote himself to the love of the world, or he embarked on spiritual quests and allowed himself any entertainment. But after a while he found a balance in his emotions. Although his later life shows that self-denial manifested itself more often than pride.
In this way, general rule for the development of the will of emotions says: all sensual affairs should not be led by the senses, but be the result of the will. In addition, a person's feelings should not come solely from self-love.
1 rule. Don't try to please people you don't know or don't like. It will be difficult to follow this rule in life, because almost every person cares about being respected, loved and accepted by others. And often it comes to the point that we begin to worry about the opinion of a completely strangers- we forget what we ourselves need and begin to adapt to social standards. Going the other way is also not worth it - hypertrophied pride and withdrawal from others leads to a loss of contact with other people and causes an inability to love.
You just need to constantly remember that, like you, other people are primarily concerned about other people's thoughts. They also worry about how they are perceived from the outside, how they are treated, whether they are respected, and your own motives and motivations are not visible to them. Therefore, do not bother yourself with such thoughts. Tolstoy advised to perform such an exercise: regularly ask yourself “What would I do now if I didn’t care what people think and say?” and “What would I stop doing if I didn’t care about other people’s opinions?” In accordance with the answers to these questions, you need to adjust your life.
2 rule. Practice self-improvement for yourself, not for others. It's good when a person strives to become better and has a plan to achieve the goal. But the main thing at the same time is that the motives should come from oneself, and not from other people. As practice shows, this brings the best results.
For example, Tolstoy, who, along with many other great people, had difficulties in obtaining a standard education, but managed to achieve a lot by self-study and self-development. When he opened a folk school in Yasnaya Polyana, he did not introduce any compulsory subjects, grades, attendance records - nevertheless, the matter was successfully progressing, and many students received an education.
3 rule. Try to be nice, but don't show it to others. Of course, you should not hide from everyone that you are well versed - but even if this is so, all your skill can depreciate if you shout about it at every corner.
4 rule. Finding the good in other people and not looking for the flaws. Attuning to the positive is good not only in assessing other people, but also all life. Tolstoy urged everyone to tell the truth, and not to make excuses yourself.
5 rule. Live worse than you can afford. This rule is the best way to train willpower: even if you are rich and can afford much more, do not change your lifestyle. As history and practice show, extra comfort and luxury in the bud kill the desire for self-improvement.
Even the great Roman Empire collapsed more because of too pampered, luxurious life, and not because of the barbarians. You need to know exactly what things are really necessary in life, and which ones simply bring unnecessary comfort, kill time, harm the body or character.
6 rule. Donate a tenth of your property to other people. Tolstoy throughout his life was engaged in charity work and urged those around him to spend part of his wealth on things useful to society. The main thing, he said, is not to give money for abstract goods and not to give alms, it is important to do really useful, concrete deeds.
Russian writers of the circle of the Sovremennik magazine. I. A. Goncharov, I. S. Turgenev, L. N. Tolstoy, D. V. Grigorovich, A. V. Druzhinin and A. N. Ostrovsky. February 15, 1856 Photo by S. L. Levitsky
Stage 3 - the development of reasonable will
A person reaches the highest degree of perfection when his will becomes able to control the mind. Tolstoy wrote that our thoughts influence our actions, what happens to us. If you master the rational will, combining it with the emotional and bodily, then you can achieve high results in the development of various human abilities, including memory, intelligence, deliberation and others.
1 rule. Assign mental activities for each day. In the morning or in the evening, when making a list of tasks for the day, you should not bypass mental affairs: for example, reading books, studying science, mental activity, and the like. For such cases, you need to allocate special time, and about once a week you need to take time to make plans and analyze what happened.
Tolstoy, for example, did this on Saturdays. Subjecting mental activity to a strict routine disciplines the mind and makes it work more productively, as a result of which great results can be achieved. Gradually, you can begin to plan your life not only by days, but also by long periods of time. Tolstoy also advised to conduct a written introspection and he himself followed this advice.
2 rule. In the study of any business or in any activity, all mental forces should be directed to this subject. This means that in any business it is very important to be able to fully concentrate, concentrate your attention, and not let your mind be distracted. A difficult task, especially in a hostile or noisy environment, but that is what will control is all about. At first, it will be difficult not to get distracted and devote your whole mind to one problem, but this quickly becomes a habit.
3 rule. Don't dream. This rule may seem strange and not even useful. Tolstoy warned about the dangers of daydreaming. But it is important to distinguish between two concepts - dreams and goals. Goals are an important and useful part of a person's life, they allow you to focus your strength on a certain path and quickly make your way forward. Dreams, on the contrary, bring a person back, relax the will, reduce attention and concentration. Unfulfilled dreams, useless desires will not lead to anything good, so it is important to plan your life thoughtfully and concentratedly without dreaming.
4 rule. Feelings and emotions should not be allowed to take over the mind. Coping with your feelings is sometimes not easy, strong emotions push people to unreasonable actions, cause inappropriate behavior. Later we begin to regret this, because in a calm environment we have the opportunity to reflect on the situation and find best way out. Therefore, you need to learn even in such emotional moments to seize control of the mind and not let feelings control it.
5 rule. Do not give up any mental activities you have begun. The development of willpower can be compared with the strengthening of muscle mass - if you exercise regularly, it grows, and if you abandon it, it disappears.
LN Tolstoy with his wife and children. 1887
You should not radically change your life and try to introduce all the rules into it at once, otherwise you won’t developed strength will not allow to live in such a regime, which will only bring disappointment. It is better to follow these rules gradually, and most importantly, do not forget the main advice of Leo Tolstoy: before you thoughtlessly follow the rule, you need to test it.
EXTRACT FROM A PRIVATE LETTER REGARDING OBJECTIONS TO THE ARTICLE "TO WOMEN".
The calling of every person, male and female, is to serve people. With this general proposition, I think, all non-immoral people agree. The difference between men and women in fulfilling this purpose is only in the means by which they achieve it, that is, in what way they serve people.
A man serves people both in physical work - acquiring the means of subsistence, and mental work - by studying the laws of nature in order to overcome it, and social work - establishing forms of life, establishing relationships between people. The means of serving people for a man are very diverse. All the activities of mankind, with the exception of childbearing and feeding, constitute the field of his service to people. A woman, in addition to her ability to serve people with all the same aspects of her existence as a man, is called by her structure, inevitably attracted to that service, which alone is excluded in the field of serving a man.
Service to humanity is itself divided into two parts: one is an increase in the good in existing humanity, the other is the continuation of humanity itself. The first are called mainly to men, since they are deprived of the opportunity to serve the second. Women are mainly called to the second, since they are exclusively capable of it. This difference cannot, should not, and it is a sin (that is, erroneously) not to remember and erase. From this difference arise the duties of both, duties not invented by men, but lying in the nature of things. From this same difference follows an assessment of the virtue and vice of a woman and a man - an assessment that has existed in all ages and now exists and will never cease to exist, as long as there was, is and will be reason in people.
It has always been and will be that a man who spends most of his life in his characteristic diverse physical and mental social labor, and a woman who spends most of her life in her own unique labor of giving birth, feeding, and returning children, will equally feel that they do what they have to do, and will alike arouse the respect and love of other people, because both do their own, what is intended for them by their nature.
The vocation of a man is more diverse and broader, the vocation of a woman is more monotonous and narrower, but deeper, and therefore it has always been and will be that a man who has hundreds of duties, having changed one, ten of them, remains not a bad, not harmful person, having fulfilled most of his vocation. . A woman who has a small number of duties, having changed one of them, immediately falls morally below a man who has changed ten of his hundreds of duties. Such has always been the general opinion, and such it will always be, because such is the essence of the matter.
A man, in order to fulfill the will of God, must serve him in the field of physical labor, and thought, and morality: he can fulfill his purpose with all these deeds. For a woman, the means of serving God are predominantly and almost exclusively (because no one else can do this except for her) - children. Only through his deeds is a man called to serve God and people, only through his children is a woman called to serve.
And so love for their children, invested in a woman, exceptional love, with which it is completely futile to fight rationally, will always and should be characteristic of a woman mother. This love for a child in infancy is not egoism at all, but it is the worker's love for the work that he does while it is in his hands. Take away this love for the object of your work, and work is impossible. While I'm making a boot, I love it the most. If I didn't love him, I wouldn't be able to work for him. They will ruin it for me, I will be in despair, but I love it so much as long as I work. When it has worked, there remains attachment, preference, weak and illegitimate.
The same with the mother. A man is called to serve people through various works, and he loves these works while he does them.
A woman is called to serve people through her children, and she cannot but love these children of hers while she makes them, up to 3, 7, 10 years.
According to the common vocation - to serve God and people - a man and a woman are absolutely equal, despite the difference in the form of this service. Equality is that one service is just as important as the other, that one is inconceivable without the other, that one conditions the other, and that for the actual service of both man and woman, knowledge of the truth is equally necessary, without which the activity of both man and woman becomes not useful, but harmful to mankind. A man is called to perform his diverse work, but then his work is only useful, and his work, both physical, and mental, and social, is then only fruitful when they are performed in the name of truth and the good of other people. No matter how diligently a man is engaged in increasing his pleasures, idle philosophizing and social activities for his own benefit, his labor will not be fruitful. It will be fruitful only when it is aimed at reducing the suffering of people from want, from ignorance and from a false social order.
It is the same with the vocation of a woman: her birth, feeding, resurrection of children will be useful to mankind only when she raises not just children for her own joy, but future servants of mankind; when the upbringing of these children will be done in the name of truth and for the good of people, i.e., she will educate children so that they are the best people and workers for other people.
The ideal woman, according to me, will be the one who, having mastered the highest worldview of the time in which she lives, gives herself to her feminine, irresistibly invested in her vocation - gives birth, feeds and educates the largest number children capable of working for people, according to the worldview she has learned.
In order to assimilate a higher world outlook, it seems to me that there is no need to attend courses, but you only need to read the Gospel and not close your eyes, ears and, most importantly, your heart.
Well, what about those who do not have children, who are not married, widows? They will do well if they participate in male diverse labor. But it will be impossible not to regret that such a precious tool as a woman was deprived of the opportunity to fulfill her own great purpose.
Moreover, every woman, having a birth, if she has the strength, will have time to do this help to a man in his work. The help of a woman in this work is very precious, but it will always be a pity to see a young woman ready for childbearing and engaged in male labor. Seeing such a woman is like seeing precious black soil covered with rubble for a parade ground or a walk. It is even more pitiful: because this land could only give birth to bread, and a woman could give birth to something that cannot be evaluated, higher than which there is nothing - a man. And only she can do it.
Notes
On April 17-18, 1886, Tolstoy wrote this “private letter” to V. G. Chertkov. It first reports on S. A. Tolstoy’s dissatisfaction with the appearance of three Tolstoy legends in Russian Wealth, then on the joy Tolstoy experienced from communicating with people who are approaching the truth, then expresses satisfaction that L. E. Obolensky, the editor of the Russian Wealth magazine, well defended him from attacks on him for his views on the vocation of a woman and on science. Immediately, bewilderment is expressed why it is possible to scold ladies with curls and not speak badly about women's courses, the view is disputed that women should equally love their own and other people's children. Following this, from the words: “The calling of every man, both male and female,” and to the end of the letter, it is about the difference in the work of men and women.
The article "To Women", which is mentioned in the title, is the last chapter of the extensive article "Thoughts caused by the census", which first appeared in print in 1886, in the XII volume of the fifth edition of Tolstoy's works, and in all subsequent editions was published under the title "Fragment from the article: "So what do we do?"
Regarding the chapter “To Women” by A. M. Skabichevsky, in No. 91 of the Novosti newspaper for 1886, a sharp, almost mocking note “Count L. N. Tolstoy on the Women’s Question” was printed, in which the critic simultaneously condemned Tolstoy and for his views on science and art. In response to this note, L. E. Obolensky published in the 4th book of Russian Wealth for 1886 the article “Leo Tolstoy on the Women’s Issue, Art and Science (Regarding the Note of Mr. Skabichevsky)”, in which he took Tolstoy under your protection.
In connection with the controversy between Obolensky and Skabichevsky, and also, apparently, in connection with the attacks on Tolstoy in society about his views on the women's issue, Tolstoy once again spoke about this in a letter to Chertkov.
Following the receipt of the letter, V. G. Chertkov made an extract from it, starting from the place where the letter loses the character of a personal appeal to the end, and, handing it over to Tolstoy when meeting with him, asked his permission to print it. On April 22–23, Tolstoy wrote to Chertkov: “I will revise the statement on women’s labor and then write it.” .
Soon, however, Tolstoy decided to send this extract to L. E. Obolensky for publication in Russkoye Bogatstvo. He gave me an extract from my letter. I reviewed it and am sending it to you. Print it if you find it suitable." However, the extract was somewhat delayed with sending, apparently in order to complete it more carefully. It was published in Nos. 5-6 of Russian Wealth for 1886 under the title Labor of Men and Women. Extract from a private letter regarding objections to the article "To Women". This article began to be included in the collected works of Tolstoy starting from the sixth edition of 1886 and in the same edition that was printed in Russian Wealth, but with an abbreviated title (the words "Labor of men and women" were released).
This edition differs from the text of the letter itself, in addition to the fact that the entire beginning of the letter is omitted in it to the words: “The calling of every person, both male and female, is to serve people”, by another correction of several phrases. These corrections, however, do not introduce anything essentially new and come down only to smoothing out stylistic roughness or to clarifying the thoughts expressed. So, the phrase: “The difference between men and women in the fulfillment of this purpose is great in terms of the means by which they serve people” - corrected as follows: “The difference between men and women in the fulfillment of this purpose is only in the means by which they achieve it, i.e. ... what they serve people. The phrase: “A man serves people with physical, mental, and moral labor” has been corrected and distributed: “A man serves people both with physical work - acquiring food, and mental work - by studying the laws of nature to overcome it, and social work - by establishing forms of life , establishing relationships between people. Phrase: “A man is called to perform his diverse work, but his work is only useful then and his work (plow bread or make cannons), and his mental activity (to make life easier for people or count money), and his religious activity (to bring people together or sing prayers ) are only fruitful when they are performed in the name of the highest truth accessible to man” is corrected as follows: “A man is called to perform his manifold work, but then his work is only useful, and his work, both physical, and mental, and social, is then only fruitful when they are done in the name of truth and the good of other people.” Obviously, the new wording of the last phrase was primarily due not to considerations of a censorial nature, but to the fact that, in the second consideration of this phrase, Tolstoy, from his point of view, could not fail to see in it a certain ambiguity: to make cannons, to count money, to sing prayers - all this , in his opinion, under no circumstances can a person consider it a useful and fruitful work.
In the same vein, and other corrections.
In the book “On the sexual question. Thoughts of L. N. Tolstoy”, published in the edition of “Free Word” (Christchurch, 1901), V. G. Chertkov published excerpts from Tolstoy’s letter to him in the original edition, also starting with the words: “The calling of every person ...”, but with the omission of several concluding phrases in the last two paragraphs (pp. 75-78).
Since Tolstoy himself intended for publication the corrected text of the “Excerpts” in the edition published in Russkoye Bogatstvo, this is the text that is printed in this edition.
Footnotes
349. And not L. E. Obolensky, as A. L. Bem erroneously points out in the “Bibliographic Index of the Works of L. N. Tolstoy”, Leningrad, 1926, p. 81. Published in v. 85, pp. 345-349 .
350. Volume 85, page 351.
Leo Tolstoy ate too much - ashamed
The great writer and philosopher Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy, who by birth and upbringing belonged to the family nobility, preached a working lifestyle. His long and fruitful earthly path can be called a school of labor and self-discipline. For many contemporaries and descendants, his system of views became a role model. Our interlocutor is a researcher at the Leo Tolstoy State Museum in Moscow, Tatyana Vasilievna Romanova.
In the huge literary and epistolary heritage of Leo Tolstoy there are many discussions about doctors, medicine, health, daily routine, physical activity, moral education. In the time of Tolstoy, all educated people, and even more so among representatives of the aristocratic circle, adopted a respectful, some kind of super-respectful attitude towards medical science. Tolstoy ironically perceived admiration for science in general and medicine in particular.
Tolstoy viewed medicine from a moral standpoint. From Tolstoy's point of view, it is impossible to cure a disease only with the help of medicines, but it can be overcome with a kind attitude towards a person, compassion, a word of love. Real doctors, according to Tolstoy, are a special breed of people who have innate mercy and the gift of love.
He saw these qualities in the characters of doctors, whose names were modest, and not in fashionable doctors with their self-confidence and narcissism. It is the doctor who knows the patient since childhood, who is able to heal not only the body, but also the soul. The image of such a kind doctor on the pages of Tolstoy's prose appears only once. This is the "dear doctor" Ivan Vasilyevich, one of the characters in the story "Childhood". A doctor who can sit all night long at the bedside of a patient, a soul-savior who finds a kind word for his patient.
The human condition, according to Tolstoy, cannot be divided into physical and moral. According to the great writer, the body reacts to external manifestations with a spiritual and physical state, and even more often spiritual depression, sadness and sadness cause illness.
Therefore, the "mood of the spirit" is much more serious and important. Medicine treats only the consequence - physical pain, and does not eliminate the moral, spiritual cause. The main mission of doctors is the ability to inspire the patient with faith in recovery. Recovery can only provide peace, the ability to live in harmony with the outside world.
This idea is directly connected with Tolstoy's worldview: with his understanding of the position of man in the world of nature, civilization, and culture. He was a supporter of the natural man, living in close unity with the natural world, not crippled by the bustle of the city and true to his original nature.
We must be closer to nature. Any excess invented by civilization is harmful. This is the starting point of Tolstoy's famous theory of "working life." According to this theory, vegetarianism arose in the life of the writer as a cult of simple food; addiction to natural fabrics: linen, canvas, cambric; a special rhythm of life, its peasant labor mood.
So, the main medicine is the right life according to the laws of nature, consistent with the moral principle. Tolstoy agreed with those doctors who believed that new drugs weaned the body from fighting the disease itself.
In order to preserve one's moral and physical strength, constant activity is necessary. And by the example of his life, Tolstoy affirmed the cult of labor and healthy life In his youth, Count Tolstoy paid tribute to gluttony, overeating, smoking and even alcohol libations. His rejection of bad habits was of a principled nature.
For the second half of his long earthly journey, Tolstoy lived according to a strict regime, the habit of which he developed in himself by self-education. Tolstoy divided his day into four parts, calling them "my four teams." The first three were in the morning, and Tolstoy's day began early, no later than 5 o'clock in the morning.
He spent the first part of the day exercise and charging. His exercise was more like an athlete's training and lasted at least an hour. In the Khamovniki house-museum, the dumbbells with which he performed morning exercises are still kept. In a diary dated October 1910, when only two weeks remained before his death, Tolstoy made the following entry: "I did gymnastics unusual for years and knocked down a cupboard. That's a fool." The mighty strength did not decrease in him until the last days.
Charging was replaced by a walk, unchanged at any time of the year: on foot, when a distance of five or six kilometers was covered with fast Tolstoy steps or on horseback. Tolstoy believed that horseback riding kept him healthy and relieved the stress of mental pursuits. A little later one could see Lev Nikolaevich flying on a bicycle. The bicycle was presented to Tolstoy when he was already 67 years old.
With the students of the Yasnaya Polyana school, he loved such a game: the children fell on him, clung to his arms and legs, and Tolstoy lifted this whole pyramid. In winter, Lev Nikolaevich often ran with a crowd of flushed boys, enthusiastically playing snowballs, arranging massive snow battles.
Morning continued useful physical labor. Tolstoy was convinced that work is the most important moral duty of every person. During the twenty winters he lived in Moscow's Khamovniki, Tolstoy cleaned his own rooms. There was a spirit stove in the house, on which Lev Nikolaevich himself brewed barley coffee for himself, sometimes - oatmeal - an invariable breakfast after a walk. Then he sawed and chopped firewood, laying it out for about ten stoves, and brought water for the day.
Useful physical labor was replaced by creative labor. The third part of the morning was devoted to mental work. Tolstoy wrote. At this time, there was complete silence in the house. Any sound "slowed down" the work, and Tolstoy liked to do everything quickly. During work, no one was allowed to disturb the writer. Only Sofya Andreevna had the exclusive right to enter the office.
The fourth, no less important part of the day is communication with people. In Khamovniki, in Yasnaya Polyana, in the houses of friends, where Lev Nikolaevich was staying, people came in the evening. For the last twenty-five years of his life, Tolstoy was a staunch vegetarian, but not a strict one. He excluded meat and fish from his diet, but ate butter, drank milk, and was very fond of eggs and kefir. Once upon a time, in his youth, Tolstoy often went to luxurious edible shops, tasted meat dishes with pleasure, and adored fish. Later, having conquered his passion for culinary delights, he called Eliseev's grocery store on Tverskaya Street a "temple of gluttony" and condemned those who think a lot about food and make it the meaning of life.
In matters of nutrition, Tolstoy had to overcome himself. It was incredibly difficult for him to limit himself to food. His healthy body and lifestyle, accompanied by a huge expenditure of mental and physical strength, maintained an invariably excellent appetite. Overeating he could overcome only with vigilant and ruthless self-control. There are many such entries in his diaries: "I ate too much - I'm ashamed", "I could not resist the second portion of cabbage soup - I blame myself."
Oatmeal was Tolstoy's favorite dish. She never bothered him. Most often, he would beat an egg into oatmeal and beat the porridge with a spoon. I adored cabbage soup from sauerkraut with mushrooms and herbs, seasoned with vegetable oil. He ate cabbage soup with a slice of rye bread.
Tolstoy mastered all the major sports. And he succeeded in every one of them. He was a remarkable sportsman: he swam excellently, rode brilliantly, and from a young age he mastered virtuoso horse riding. His interests included cycling, gymnastics and, of course, chess. This game, adored by Tolstoy, in his opinion, trained memory, mind, ingenuity and endurance. Although just in chess Tolstoy often lost, as he was impatient and impetuous, adhered to an offensive style of play. His games are still published in chess magazines around the world.
When Tolstoy fell ill, he completely refused food. Entry from the diary: "I was shivering. I didn't eat for a day and a half. It became easier." Only later did medicine prove that fasting really helps the patient to get better. By the way, decades later, scientists explained the beneficial effect of oatmeal, which never bothered Tolstoy, on the functioning of the liver. But Tolstoy's liver was unhealthy. He, of course, did not know these facts, but his intuition suggested the correct means.
By the way, about Tolstoy's intuition. Not only ordinary readers, but also professional doctors find it hard to believe that Tolstoy had no medical education. The descriptions of the illnesses of the heroes of his works are accurate to the smallest detail. And although the diagnoses are not named, it is clear that Ivan Ilyich was dying of cancer, and the old Prince Bolkonsky had a stroke.
But Tolstoy was not a doctor, he also had no serious experience of his own illnesses, because he was very a healthy person. However, fragments of his books can be educational illustrations for the history of the disease. Such is the artistic power and intuition of Tolstoy the writer.
The pedagogical activity of Leo Tolstoy began in 1849, when he taught the peasant children of Yasnaya Polyana to read and write. More actively, he took up pedagogy from 1859 and continued his work with short breaks until the end of his days. After returning from the Crimean War, Lev Nikolaevich opened a school in Yasnaya Polyana and contributed to the organization of several more peasant schools in nearby villages.
Observing the behavior of a child, teenager, youth and relying on school experience Tolstoy comes to the conclusion that learning is not an easy task. For best results, he turns to special literature, enters into contacts with educators, is interested in the experience different countries. In 1857 Tolstoy goes to Europe: he visits Germany, France, Switzerland.
In 1860 he traveled abroad for the second time. He called this trip "a trip through the schools of Europe". Then Tolstoy visited Germany, France, Switzerland, England, Belgium. He expressed his impressions with the words: "I could write whole books about the ignorance that I saw in the schools of France, Switzerland and Germany."
This trip finally confirmed the desire to have their own school and the Yasnaya Polyana school, opened in 1859, was reorganized in the autumn of 1861. The basis of her work was Leo Tolstoy's opinion about the free and fruitful creativity of children with the help of teachers.
At first, the peasants greeted the free school with distrust. On the first day, only 22 children crossed the school threshold, but after 5-6 weeks, the number of students more than tripled. Education here was very different from ordinary schools.
Classes started at 8-9 am. At noon, a break for lunch and rest, then again 3-4 hours of classes. Each teacher gave 5-6 lessons daily. Students could leave whenever they wanted, even right from the lesson. Depending on age, preparedness and success, the students were divided into three groups: junior, middle and senior. Homework was not given. The predominant form of classes was not a lesson in the usual sense, but a free conversation with students, during which children learned to read, write, arithmetic, God's law, and learned grammar rules. They were also taught drawing, singing, history, geography, and natural history.
The Yasnaya Polyana school for peasant children was located next to the writer's house, in an outbuilding that has survived to this day. Children could come to classes at will, no one punished them for absenteeism.
The fundamental difference of the Yasnaya Polyana school was its attitude to the knowledge, skills and abilities acquired by children outside of school. Their educational value was not only not denied, as was done in most other schools, but, on the contrary, was considered as a prerequisite for the success of school activities. The spirit of conscious discipline reigned in the school, which was zealously guarded and developed by students who loved their school and their teacher, Leo Tolstoy, very much.
The content of education changed in accordance with the development of children, the possibilities of the school and teachers, and the desire of parents. Lev Nikolayevich himself taught at senior group mathematics, physics, history, some other subjects. Most of all, he taught the lesson in the form of a story. Tolstoy mastered this method of teaching to perfection. His stories were full of brightness, sincerity and emotionality.
Being a teacher at Yasnaya Polyana turned out to be much more difficult than at a school with a rigid lesson schedule, compulsory discipline, and a set of well-known rewards and punishments. The teacher was required to have moral and intellectual tension, the ability to take into account the state and abilities of each of his pupils. The teacher had to possess pedagogical creativity.
Very soon, the school in Yasnaya Polyana, thanks to its unusually rapid success with children, acquired the best reputation among the peasants, so that students were sometimes taken to Tolstoy for 50 miles.
Tolstoy's pedagogical activity was not limited to Yasnaya Polyana. On his initiative, at least 20 public schools operated in the Krapivensky district of the Tula province. His experiments, so unusual for that time, attracted the attention of the public, Russian and foreign. Teachers from many countries came to Yasnaya Polyana. They were attracted by the humanistic ideas of Leo Tolstoy.
Lev Nikolaevich published a special pedagogical journal "Yasnaya Polyana". It described new teaching methods, new principles of administrative activity, the distribution of books among the people, and an analysis of freely emerging schools. Teachers were invited to cooperate in the journal, who looked at their occupation not only as a means of subsistence and an obligation to educate children, but as an area of testing for the science of pedagogy. Tolstoy published many of his articles in the journal.
LN Tolstoy wrote 11 articles in which he showed the fallacy of the system of public education in tsarist Russia and in the bourgeois countries of Western Europe. He convincingly proved that ruling classes neither in Russia nor in foreign countries they do not care about the real education of children from the people.
Tolstoy wrote that the Russian people need public education, public schools and colleges. The writer conceived the idea of creating a "People's Education Society", the purpose of which was to spread education among the people. He did not succeed in fully realizing his intention, but teachers from his school and neighboring peasant schools regularly gathered in his Yasnaya Polyana house, forming a team of like-minded people who became friends to implement progressive pedagogy in schools for peasant children. Their positive experience was covered in the Yasnaya Polyana magazine.
Here is an excerpt from Tolstoy's article that gives a good idea of this school. “Lights in the windows have been visible from the school for a long time, and half an hour after the bell, in the fog, in the rain or in the slanting rays of the autumn sun, they appear on the mounds ... figures, two, three, and one at a time ... Dear, I almost never saw, for students to play - something from the smallest or newly enrolled ... Nobody carries anything with them - no books, no notebooks. Homework is not assigned. Not only do they carry nothing in their hands, they have nothing to carry in their heads. No lesson, nothing done yesterday, he is not obliged to remember today. He is not tormented by the thought of the upcoming lesson. He carries only himself with his receptive nature and the confidence that school will be as fun today as it was yesterday. He doesn't think about the class until the class has started. No one is ever reprimanded for being late, and they are never late, like the elders, whom their fathers will keep at home some other time with some work. And then this big trot, out of breath, runs to the school.
However, the activities of Leo Tolstoy caused dissatisfaction with the authorities. In the summer of 1862, during his departure for koumiss treatment in Bashkiria, a search was carried out in Yasnaya Polyana. This greatly offended the writer and, in protest, he stops his extremely interesting pedagogical activity.
In 1869, L.N. Tolstoy again took up pedagogy with enthusiasm. Lev Nikolaevich had long nurtured the idea of an educational book for the smallest, and in 1872 the “ABC” compiled by him was published. The overall plan, its content and logical structure have been developed for quite a long time. The writer often spoke about this occupation with excitement: “I don’t know what will come of this, but I put my whole soul into it.” Tolstoy connected the brightest and boldest hopes with the ABC, believing that several generations of Russian children, from peasants to royal ones, would learn from it, getting their first impressions.
The "ABC" of Leo Tolstoy became an event in pedagogy. It largely justified the hopes of the author, although it seemed to many that initial education- a work unworthy of the talent of a great writer. The significance of pedagogical work was not immediately understood and appreciated by contemporaries. However, Tolstoy was convinced that from the first stage of education begins and spiritual development child. Whether learning will be joyful for the child, whether he will have a disinterested interest in cognitive activity, whether he will subsequently put spiritual values above material wealth - all this largely depends on his first steps in the world of knowledge. The development of the spiritual principle without a school can hardly take place. This is a priority task, more important than communicating a certain amount of knowledge. That's it, and Tolstoy tried to solve it with his "ABC". The book contained instructive stories on various topics, including physics and nature. Much was permeated with religious themes.
In 1875, a revised "New ABC" and four "Books for Reading" were published. The "New ABC" - a new set of educational materials - was more universal, improved as a result of numerous disputes with opponents. She received a positive assessment in the press, was admitted by the Ministry of Education to public schools. During the lifetime of the great writer, it went through more than thirty editions. At the same time, Tolstoy compiled a textbook on arithmetic and worked a lot on the methodology of primary education and other issues of the work of public schools.
Having developed his own idea of the content and methodology of public schools, L.N. Tolstoy in the 70s put forward his candidacy for the Zemstvo of the Krapivensky district. Being elected, he deploys a variety of activities to create zemstvo schools and improve their work. Tolstoy becomes the head of the schools of a large county. At the same time, L.N. Tolstoy developed a project for a peasant teacher's seminary, which he jokingly called "a university in bast shoes." In 1876, he received permission from the Ministry of Public Education to open a seminary, but, not meeting support from the Zemstvo, he could not carry out this project.
Last period pedagogical activity LN Tolstoy refers to the 90s. Tolstoy in this period put his “Tolstoy” religion as the basis of education, the recognition that a person carries God “in himself”, universal love for people, forgiveness, humility, non-resistance to evil by violence, a sharply negative attitude towards ritual religion, church religion. He recognizes the separation of upbringing from education as a mistake and believes that children not only can, but also need to be educated (which he denied in the 60s). In 1907-1908, L.N. Tolstoy asked to be allowed to teach at the Moscow evening school for working teenagers, but did not receive permission from the Ministry of Public Education for this.