On the Bryansk - Gomel highway, 45 km from Bryansk, there is the village of Krasny Rog of the Pochep District of the Bryansk Region. There is a museum - the estate of Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy and the grave of the great poet, prose writer and playwright.
His wife, Sofya Andreevna, was buried in the same burial vault with her husband near the Church of the Assumption of the Most Holy Theotokos.
The house in which the count and his wife lived, a hunting lodge - everything has been restored and preserved in the same form as it was under Alexei Konstantinovich.
The lime tree alleys of the park amaze with their beauty. The crowns of trees majestically create an unforgettable view of the manor's estate. It seems that now the count and the countess will go out for a walk, slowly walk along the alleys, discussing urgent matters and the new work of Alexei Konstantinovich.
A. Tolstoy always consulted with his wife, talked about his plans, treasured her opinion. Many now admit that none of the writers of the 19th century had such an intelligent and educated wife.
But the temple and the burial place of the spouses are especially attractive. The Tolstoy tomb in the Red Horn is a holy place. People from all over the world come here. They bow low and perform a ritual of memory, lighting candles and laying flowers.
Every year in honor of the birthday of the writer on September 5, the museum-estate hosts the all-Russian holiday "Silver Lyre", dedicated to the work of A.K. Tolstoy's poetry meeting, the ringing of bells - all this speaks of the unshakable memory, pride of the people.
In 2017, the 200th anniversary of the birth of Alexei Konstantinovich will be celebrated. Poets and writers, lovers of A.K. Tolstoy from all over Russia, Ukraine, Belarus ... It is gratifying that preparations for the holiday are already underway. Approved by the commission under the governor of the Bryansk region N.V. Denin, a draft design for the next reconstruction of the main buildings in the estate museum, headed by the architect Alexander Perov. 400 million rubles will be allocated from the federal budget for these purposes.
Attracts the burial place and a sense of admiration for devotion and sincere love, which united the spouses forever in one tomb.
Being nearby, the lines from the poem by A.K. Tolstoy:
In the alarm of worldly vanity,
I saw you, but a mystery
Your features were covered.
Sofya Andreevna Miller, nee Bakhmeteva, suddenly and deeply pierced the poet's heart, becoming his muse and the closest person for life.
They met at a ball in St. Petersburg in January 1851. Alexei Konstantinovich was 34 years old, he was single, of a count's family, in childhood he was brought up together with the heir to the throne Alexander 2. His mother, Anna Alekseevna Tolstaya, did not expect that the only son would choose a woman as a companion in life, about whom in high society did not leave mouth
In her youth, Sophia experienced a personal drama. Prince G.N. Vyazemsky turned the head of a young girl and left her pregnant. His parents were against the marriage of their son to the daughter of a poor retired lieutenant Andrei Nikolaevich Bakhmetev.
Sophia's brother, Yuri, insulted for the honor of his sister, challenged the offender to a duel, but was killed himself. The grief that came to the family fell on the girl's still unripe soul as a heavy burden. Relatives blamed her for all the misfortunes that befell them. Another brother, Peter, with his wife designed the girl who was born, also Sophia.
And Sofya Andreevna was married to the Horse Guards Colonel Lev Miller, without asking her consent. The marriage with her unloved husband further aggravated Sophia's situation, did not bring her happiness.
At the time of meeting A.K. Tolstoy Sofya Andreevna was married, but she suffered deeply. The secular society condemned her behavior. In her family, she also did not find support and participation. The poet writes in 1851:
I see the poor child in you,
without a father, without a support.
You knew early grief, deception
and human slander ...
With such an attitude of others, the feeling that arose between Alexei Konstantinovich and Sofya Andreevna was not understood by anyone, including the poet's mother. In order not to upset his mother, A.K. Tolstoy secretly met with his beloved for a long time.
Sofya Andreevna again challenges the secular society, finally leaving her husband. And he connects his fate with Alexei Konstantinovich in a civil marriage, since her husband did not give her a divorce.
In 1856 Alexey Konstantinovich fell ill with typhus. Sophia goes to him near Odessa and takes care of her beloved, despite the condemnation of loved ones. She is not afraid for her life, she is not afraid of contracting this terrible disease and dying. This suggests that Sofya Andreevna was a very strong person. She rejects all gossip, the main thing for her is to be close to her beloved and help him.
For 12 long years, lovers went to their happiness, overcoming obstacles on their way.
And only in 1863 Alexey Konstantinovich and Sofya Andreevna got married.
By this time, the poet's mother had died, and Lev Miller finally gave a divorce.
Sofya Andreevna was very smart, she knew 14 languages. Possessing an excellent memory, she immediately answered many of her husband's questions, saving him from rummaging in dictionaries and reference books.
She was a very kind and helpful person. She never refused anyone anything, many turned to her for help and always received it.
Sofya Andreevna was a person of an amazing soul. Perhaps all the troubles in her youth fell on her head because of her kindness, her willingness to always sacrifice herself for the sake of loved ones. Over the years, mercy and compassion were even more expressed in her behavior with others.
She and her husband open schools for poor people in the villages of Krasny Rog and Pogoreltsy. They treated the peasants free of charge, provided them with medicines, kept a pharmacy and a paramedic midwife in the village of Krasny Rog. Sofia Andreevna was the initiator of all these events.
Her education, musicality, erudition attracted the writers of that time to her. I.S. Turgenev, I.A. Goncharov, F.M. Dostoevsky were frequent visitors to her literary salon.
Sofya Andreevna became the muse of A.K. Tolstoy. Many of his poems are dedicated to her.
The poet writes:
A tear is trembling in your jealous gaze
Oh, do not be sad, you are all dear to me,
But I can only love in the open:
My love, wide as the sea,
The shores cannot accommodate the life.
Was their union happy? There are many opinions on this matter. But one thing is clear that Russian literature received many wonderful works, the inspiration and muse of which was Sofya Andreevna.
The characters of the heroes in his story of the times of Ivan the Terrible "Prince Silver" by A.K. Tolstoy constantly discussed with his wife, listened to her advice. Under her influence, the image of Kozma Prutkov appears. Under this pseudonym, together with the Zhemchuzhnikov cousins, a collection of comic poems and phrases is published.
The emotional attraction of these two people has passed through the years, has not faded away. It was strengthened by caring for each other, respect and tolerance.
In recent years, Alexey Konstantinovich was very sick. Irritability due to severe headaches that tormented him often brought fuss and dissatisfaction into family life. Mercy and compassion in the character of Sofya Andreevna were the first assistants in those years.
Sofya Andreevna and Alexey Konstantinovich have been married for 12 years. Fate again measured them 12 years, as well as the path from acquaintance to the wedding.
In those years, morphine was often prescribed by doctors in the treatment of diseases. This medicine was prescribed to Alexey Konstantinovich by the attending physician.
On September 28, 1875, while on his estate in Krasniy Rog, Aleksey Konstantinovich made a mistake and injected himself with a lethal dose of morphine. He was 58 years old.
Here he was buried by will. He was pulled by this land during his lifetime. He loved the forest, hunting, his estate.
He bequeathed all his estates to his wife, and after her death - to his cousin N.M. Zhemchuzhnikov.
After the death of her husband, Sofya Andreevna suffered deeply, visited the grave every day and sat there for a long time. Life has lost its meaning for her. She does not take care of herself. During the war, in the winter of 1877-1878, she left for Iasi to take care of the sick and wounded. She contracted typhus from them and was dying herself. But God did not call her to him, miraculously they left her in the Red Horn.
Sofya Andreevna survived her husband by 20 years. She has preserved all the traditions laid down by A.K. Tolstoy in his estates. Refused royalties for the works of A.K. Tolstoy in favor of needy Russian writers.
She died in Lisbon in 1895. The coffin with her body was taken to the Red Horn and buried in the same tomb with her husband. The deceased wished so.
This grave is a symbol of the eternal and sublime feeling, the devoted love of two talented people of their time.
P.I. Tchaikovsky in 1878 on the verses of A.K. Tolstoy wrote a romance "Amid the Noisy Ball ...". This romance became famous and still lives on.
Divine lines of A.K. Tolstoy are beautiful:
Amid a noisy ball, by chance,
In the alarm of worldly vanity,
I saw you, but a mystery
Your features were covered.
I liked your waist thin
And all your brooding look
And your laugh, both sad and sonorous,
Since then, it sounds in my heart.
In the hours of lonely nights
I love, tired, to lie down -
I see sad eyes
I hear a funny speech
And sadly I fall asleep
And in the dreams of the unknown I sleep ...
Do I love you - I don't know
But it seems to me that I love!
In the photo: the tomb of A.K. Tolstoy and his wife Sofia Andreevna
, Dostoevsky, Fet, Solovyov and others. The aunt of the famous philosopher and poet D. N. Tsertelev.
| Sofya Andreevna Bakhmeteva | |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | |
| Place of Birth |
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| Date of death | |
| A place of death |
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| Occupation | the mistress of the literary salon |
| Spouse | Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy |
| Children | Sofia Petrovna Bakhmetyeva |
| Media files at Wikimedia Commons | |
Childhood and youth
Father - Andrei Nikolaevich Bakhmetev.
Despite the fact that she was born in the provinces, she was very educated and had an inquisitive mind. She knew fourteen foreign languages. I read voraciously, absorbed the novelties of European literature and closely followed Russian literature. In her younger years, she had an affair with Prince Grigory Nikolaevich Vyazemsky, as a result of which she became pregnant. Bakhmeteva's mother brought charges against the prince, the essence of which was that the prince was dragging out time to marry her daughter. The prince was summoned to a duel. As a result of a duel that took place in 1847 in Petrovsky-Razumovsky, Sophia's brother, Yuri, died. And on February 29, 1848, out of wedlock, a daughter, Sophia Bakhmeteva, was born. To avoid rumors, the child was formalized as a niece, the daughter of brother Peter.
First marriage
After the death of her brother, Sofya Andreevna Bakhmeteva could not endure sidelong glances and indirect reproaches for his death. She left the family estate Smolkovo and hastily married Lev Miller, the nephew of Ekaterina Lvovna Tolstoy, who was the mother of Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev. Lev is a brilliant cavalry officer, but this did not bring happiness to Sophia. The couple lived separately for a long time and did not communicate much.
An affair with A.K. Tolstoy
In January 1851, Sophia Miller met I.S.Turgenev and Count A.K. Tolstoy at a masquerade at the Bolshoi Theater. Sofya Andreevna was wearing a mask and intrigued Turgenev and they agreed on a second date. Ivan Sergeevich took the silent Tolstoy with him for company. Seeing Sophia without a mask, Turgenev was greatly disappointed. Later he will say:
“What did I see then? ...
... The face of a Chukhon soldier in a skirt! "
Despite her ugly face, she had a beautiful figure and, moreover, she was very charming and sociable. According to a contemporary, Sofya Andreevna “ was living proof that charm doesn't need beauty. Her facial features were not attractive, but her clever eyes and a clever, also golden voice gave the slightest word of her something especially enticing. "... Later, a pleasant conversation took place over tea, during which Turgenev got bored, and Alexei Konstantinovich, on the contrary, was fascinated. He soon dedicated the following lines to her:
Amid a noisy ball, by chance,
In the alarm of worldly vanity,
I saw you, but a mystery
Your features were covered.
Later, these lines were used in the famous Tchaikovsky romance. However, while Aleksey Konstantinovich was composing romantic poems and writing letters to her, Sophia had a passionate affair with Grigorovich during a trip to Saratov. Soon unpleasant rumors reached Tolstoy. He immediately packed up and went to Smolkovo, the estate of the Bakhmetevs, in order to demand an explanation. Calmly listening to Alexei Konstantinovich, Sophia told him all her life. Tolstoy's anger changed to tenderness, and he realized that he was the person who would save her from a bad past and give her family happiness. But Tolstoy's mother was against marriage, who considered Sophia a terrible woman, and her husband, who did not give her a divorce ... They met occasionally, in secret. Only when, during the Crimean War, Tolstoy falls ill with typhus, Sophia, without hiding, comes to nurse him. Finally, after the death of Alexei Konstantinovich's mother, 12 years after they met, they got married in Dresden, in a Greek church.
Married life with A.K. Tolstoy
At first, the life of the newlyweds was happy and harmonious. Tolstoy was never jealous of his wife for the past, he only infinitely pitied her.
“Poor child, since you were thrown into life, you have known only storms and thunderstorms ... It's hard for me even to listen to music without you. It's like I'm getting closer to you through her! "
But Sofya Andreevna could not remain a quiet, modest wife all her life. She was bored. In the winter I was bored in Europe, ruining myself for luxury. And in the summer I was bored at the estate. She called Alexei Konstantinovich by his last name: "What nonsense are you talking about, Tolstoy!" He annoyed her. She did not consider it necessary to hide from him, which puts Turgenev as a writer much higher.
This very upset Alexei Konstantinovich and reflected on his health. He was tormented by headaches, asthma, neuralgia. Someone advised him to relieve pain with morphine. This later ruined him - in 1875 he died of an overdose.
Further years of life and death
After her husband's funeral, Sofya Andreevna moved to St. Petersburg. In her living room, she arranges a literary salon, where writers, poets and influential people regularly gather. On one of these evenings, she knots romantic acquaintance [clarify] with Dostoevsky, and he becomes her frequent guest, until his death in
Childhood and youth
Despite the fact that she was born in the provinces, she was very educated and had an inquisitive mind. She knew fourteen foreign languages. I read voraciously, absorbed the novelties of European literature and closely followed Russian literature. In her younger years, she had an affair with Prince Grigory Nikolaevich Vyazemsky, as a result of which she became pregnant. Bakhmeteva's mother brought charges against the prince, the essence of which was that the prince was dragging out time to marry her daughter, and this offends maternal pride. If the prince refuses to marry, the lady's relatives challenge him to a duel. Gregory accepts the challenge and Sophie's brother Yuri comes out to shoot him. As a result of a duel that took place in 1847 in Petrovsky-Razumovsky, Yuri dies. On February 29, 1848, without waiting for a marriage proposal, out of wedlock gives birth to a daughter, Sofya Bakhmeteva. To avoid rumors, the child is registered as a niece, daughter of brother Peter.
First marriage
Sofya Andreevna Bakhmeteva, after the death of her brother, could not endure sidelong glances and indirect reproaches for his death. She leaves the family estate Smolkovo and hastily marries Lev Miller, the nephew of Ekaterina Lvovna Tolstoy, whose sister was the mother of Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev. Leo is a brilliant officer, a cavalry guard, but this does not bring happiness to young Sophie, there is no love. The spouses live separately for a long time and communicate little.
An affair with A.K. Tolstoy
In January 1851, Sofia Miller met I.S.Turgenev and Count A.K. Tolstoy at a masquerade at the Bolshoi Theater. Sofya Andreevna was wearing a mask and intrigued Turgenev and they agreed on a second date. Ivan Sergeevich took the silent Tolstoy with him for the campaign. Seeing Sophia without a mask, Turgenev was greatly disappointed. Later he will say:
“What did I see then? ...
... The face of a Chukhon soldier in a skirt! "
Despite her ugly face, Sonya had a beautiful figure and, in addition, she was very charming and sociable. Later, a pleasant conversation took place over tea, during which Turgenev got bored, and Alexei Konstantinovich, on the contrary, was fascinated by Sophia. He soon dedicates the following lines to her:
Amid a noisy ball, by chance,
In the alarm of worldly vanity,
I saw you, but a mystery
Your features were covered.
Later, these lines will be used in the famous romance by Tchaikovsky.
However, while Aleksey Konstantinovich was composing romantic poems and writing letters to her, Sophia had a passionate affair with Grigorovich during a trip to Saratov. Soon unpleasant rumors reached Tolstoy. He immediately packed up and went to Smolkovo, the estate of the Bakhmetevs, in order to demand an explanation. Calmly listening to Alexei Konstantinovich, Sophia told him all her life. Tolstoy's anger changed to tenderness and he realized that he was the person who would save her from a bad past and give her family happiness. But Tolstoy's mother was against the marriage, who considered Sophia a terrible woman and her husband, who did not give her a divorce ...
They met occasionally, in secret. Only when, during the Crimean War, Tolstoy falls ill with typhus, Sophia, without hiding, comes to nurse him. Finally, after the death of Alexei Konstantinovich's mother, 12 years after they met, they got married in Dresden, in a Greek church.
Married life with A.K. Tolstoy
At first, the life of the newlyweds was happy and harmonious. Tolstoy was never jealous of his wife for the past, he only infinitely pitied her.
“Poor child, since you were thrown into life, you have known only storms and thunderstorms ... It's hard for me even to listen to music without you. It's like I'm getting closer to you through her! "
But Sofya Andreevna could not remain a quiet, modest wife all her life. She was bored. In the winter I was bored in Europe, ruining myself for luxury. And in the summer I was bored at the estate. She called Alexei Konstantinovich by his last name: "What nonsense are you talking about, Tolstoy!" He annoyed her. She did not consider it necessary to hide from him that she was putting
Sofya Bakhmeteva was born on the Smalkovo estate of the Saransk district of the Penza province into a noble family. She had three older brothers - Nikolai, Yuri and Peter - and a sister, Ekaterina, also the eldest. Father Andrei Nikolaevich Bakhmetev wasted his fortune. Nevertheless, her mother, Varvara Petrovna Bakhmeteva (nee Ermolaeva), managed to give Sophia a good education. "Skill" consisted in the fact that in childhood Sophia lived in the family of Varvara Alexandrovna Lopukhina. She owes her education and development.
Thanks to the education she received, Sofa, that was the name of Sofya Andreevna in the family, at the age of thirteen entered the senior class of the Catherine Institute in St. Petersburg. At the institute, her friend was Sofya Andreevna Dashkova (1822-1908), who later became the wife of Prince G.G. Gagarin. From an early age, Sofya Bakhmeteva was distinguished by her intelligence and charm. She read a lot, had an excellent memory, knew languages. They say about a dozen and a half. Among them are Sanskrit and Hebrew. Sophia knew and loved music. She sang wonderfully, she had the "piercing voice of an angel". In general, the mother did everything possible so that her daughter could find a worthy party. The case presented itself.
In St. Petersburg, among the friends of Yuri's brother were the cavalry guard, captain Lev Miller and warrant officer Prince Grigory Vyazemsky, who showed interest in Sophie. The prince met her in March 1843 and already on May 8 asked Sophie's hand from her mother. However, his parents, who lived in Moscow, did not approve of their son's choice: the marriage was unequal. Attempts by the mother and Sophia herself to influence the Vyazemskys were unsuccessful: on October 20, Grigory Vyazemsky wrote to Sophie's mother that he could no longer visit them, since he had not received permission from his parents to marry.
Brother Yuri stood up for his sister - he challenged the offender to a duel. The Vyazemskys did not want murder to be added to this unpleasant story, and achieved the transfer of Yuri to the army in the Caucasus. They hoped that the passions would subside over time, but upon returning, Yuri again challenged Grigory Vyazemsky to a duel, threatening a public scandal if he refused. The duel took place in 1847. Yuri was killed. After the death of Yuri, life in the family for Sophia became unbearable. She was considered the culprit of the misfortune.
Sophia Miller
Desperate marriage
In despair, Sofya Bakhmeteva married Lev Miller's cavalry guard. Many people write that his only advantage was his "lush mustache". Not true. Miller loved Bakhmeteva and was not afraid to marry a disgraced woman. There was pure calculation on her part. Soon Bakhmeteva, having turned from a disgraced girl into the wife of a cavalry guard, took on a life of her own.
She stayed for a long time with her brother Peter in the Smalkovo estate, often appeared in the world. Her reputation was unimportant, and not in every home she was accepted. But she did not respect the rules of "good taste" either. Sofya Andreevna did not shine with beauty, but she had a slender figure, a bewitching voice and expressive gray eyes. She sang beautifully, played the piano well, could hold a conversation on any topic and, in almost any language. Often Sophia Miller left the ball with her beloved gentleman.
Acquaintance with Tolstoy
In January 1851, at a masquerade at the St. Petersburg Bolshoi Theater, Alexei Tolstoy met a lady in a mask. She charmed him with her wonderful voice and graceful figure. Wanting to continue acquaintance, he gave her his business card. They say that on the same night Tolstoy wrote a poem "Amid a noisy ball, by accident", ending with the words "But it seems to me that I love."
Soon there was a meeting with a mysterious lady in a mask. She turned out to be Sophia Miller. Alexey Tolstoy fell in love. Sophia was 24 years old, but her life story could make a good novel.
Sophia Miller photography
"What Russian heart will not flinch, will not flutter, listening to Tchaikovsky's romance" Amid the Noisy Ball "?" - asked the temperamental music critic Vladimir Stasov at the end of the 19th century.
Amid a noisy ball, by chance,
In the alarm of worldly vanity,
I saw you, but a mystery
Your features were covered.
Many remember these poems by Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy (1817-1875), and the melody of Tchaikovsky's romance merging with them. But not everyone knows that there are living events behind the poem: the beginning of extraordinary romantic love.
At a masquerade at the St. Petersburg Bolshoi Theater in the winter of 1850–51, 33-year-old chamber-cadet Alexei Tolstoy saw a stranger. Kamer-junker was famous: his mother was the granddaughter of the last hetman of Ukraine, Kirill Razumovsky, and the daughter of the Minister of Public Education under Alexander I, his father was from the old Tolstoy family. But the darling of fate did not value his high position too much - his soul was given to poetry from his youth. In 1850, he was already published, already noticed.
Best of the day
Who was that stranger in a black half mask - with a thin waist, ringing laughter, sad eyes? Her name was Sofya Andreevna Miller, nee Bakhmeteva. She also belonged to the high society - to an old surname (Varenka Lopukhina, Lermontov's beloved, is from their relatives), but impoverished.
She was an extraordinary woman, and her fate was also unusual. Contemporaries were struck by her education. She knew many foreign languages: according to some sources, fourteen, according to others - sixteen. Of course, knowledge of foreign languages was generally accepted in this environment, but Sophie Bakhmeteva was truly a polyglot. I read voraciously, absorbed the novelties of European literature and closely followed Russian literature. She corresponded with I.S. Turgenev, I.A. Goncharov, with novice authors, whose names appeared on the pages of magazines. “It seems to me that you really should be very kind,” Turgenev replied to her letter, “that you have a lot of taste and grace, and I feel that we can be friends. I would gladly trust you and your court with everything that interests me. "
Sophia Andreevna's facial features were somewhat large, heavy - this can be seen in the daguerreotypes and especially in the pictorial portrait, which always hung in the estate of A.K. Thick Red Horn. But the eyes were beautiful - lively, brilliant, intelligent. So the masquerade black mask ("... and your secret covered your features"), in which Tolstoy first saw her, came in handy for her. She also possessed an extremely beautiful ("like the call of a distant pipe"), "the voice of an angel penetrating into the soul."
Life was not kind to her, and she herself, not reckoning with the prejudices of her environment, was, perhaps, too daring for that ceremonial era. The love affair of young Sophie Bakhmeteva with Prince Vyazemsky, who seduced her, but married another, ended tragically. The brother of the abandoned girl, Pyotr Bakhmetev, challenged the offender to a duel and was killed. All her life, Sofya Andreevna considered herself to be guilty of the misfortunes and dishonor of her family.
The marriage of Sofya Andreevna with the colonel-cavalry guard L.F. Miller. The newlyweds hardly ever lived with each other. Nevertheless, Miller did not give his wife a divorce for a long time - even when her relationship with Count A.K. Tolstoy became known to the whole world and needed only legalization. "Poor child, since you were thrown into life, you have known only storms and thunderstorms," Alexey Konstantinovich will write to her.
Tolstoy was a broad-minded man. But his mother, Anna Alekseevna Tolstaya, stood firmly against his chosen one. A strong-willed woman, she had a great influence on her son. The mother did not want to come to terms with the fact that her son had an affair with a married woman, and even with a tarnished reputation. As often happens, she saw in Sofya Andreevna's intentions only selfish considerations and vanity. They say that she was jealous of her son and other women - perhaps this was partly the reason that, having passed his 30s, he was still a bachelor.
Anna Alekseevna did everything to compromise her son's friend and distract Aleksey from the relationship that had lasted for seven years. The son did not dare to go against the will of the mother. Only after her sudden death, as well as the long-awaited divorce, the lovers got married, and Sofia Andreevna Miller became Countess Sofia Andreevna Tolstoy. Under this name, she entered the history of the literary nineteenth century, although it should be noted that in the future she will always be overshadowed by the complete coincidence of names with the younger Sofia Andreevna, the famous wife of L.N. Tolstoy and the owner of Yasnaya Polyana.
The wife of Alexei Konstantinovich did not have a chance to have children. Perhaps that is why she had a special love for stranger children. She was always surrounded by the children of her numerous relatives, and in the village of Pogoreltsy, not far from the Krasny Rog estate (this is in the Bryansk region), she opened a school for peasant girls, where they were taught to read and write and handicrafts.
By the way, the Tolstoy couple had a lot of luxurious estates. Melas on the shores of the Black Sea, where Alexei Tolstoy composed a poetic cycle "Crimean Essays", in Soviet times served as a sanatorium of the Central Committee of the CPSU. Quite recently, the St. Petersburg palace of Countess Tolstoy on Shpalernaya Street (here the Leningrad branch of the Writers' Union was located for many years) has been burned to the ground and is now being restored. In the village of Sablino near St. Petersburg, bus stops are still called "Grafsky meadow", "Grafsky descent", but passengers most likely do not suspect that this is a lingering memory of Count A.K. Tolstoy, about the estate "Pustynka", glorified by Vladimir Solovyov in his poem "White Bells". All these magnificent estates, even during the life of Alexei Konstantinovich, and especially after his death, passed into the hands of relatives and were slowly ruined.
The surviving correspondence testifies to the kinship of the souls of Alexei Konstantinovich and Sofya Andreevna, to their harmonious spiritual unity. "I've never been supported and always discouraged, I'm very lazy, it's true, but I feel like I could do something good, just to make sure I find an artistic echo," and now I've found it. .. it's you, "he wrote to Sofya Andreevna.
His mother and her entourage in every possible way encouraged his bureaucratic activities, predicted a brilliant state career for him, considering his literary pretensions to be a frivolous quirk. But the soulless and fruitless service plunged the poet into constant despondency and self-denial. And only Sofya Andreevna resolutely and without hesitation supported Tolstoy's intention to retire and devote herself entirely to creativity.
In fact, it is Sofya Andreyevna that Russian culture owes the literary flourishing of Count Tolstoy - after all, it began just in the 1850s, after that very memorable meeting "amid a noisy ball, by accident." He dedicated his poems to her - "Not the wind blowing from a height", "That was in early spring", "Don't trust me, friend", "Autumn. Our whole poor garden is sprinkled" and many others. But his wife was not just a Muse. She is a constant assistant, a strict critic and even an editor of his works. Who knows, Kozma Prutkov would have been born if not for Sofya Andreevna? Aleksey Tolstoy composed comic poems, parodies and plays under the collective pseudonym of Kozma Prutkov together with his cousins Zhemchuzhnikovs. Their ardent admirer was Sofya Andreevna, who, in addition to all her virtues, also had a good sense of humor.
The history of Russian literature is rich in the names of women who inspired the creators. But this union was, perhaps, the only one of its kind - it was distinguished by some rare mutual understanding. Sofya Andreevna accompanied her husband on all his travels. Even to the Crimean War, where Tolstoy volunteered, she went with him. There, at the front, Tolstoy caught typhus, and Sofya Andreevna nursed him in the infirmary.
Alexey Konstantinovich died on September 28, 1875 at the age of 58 at his estate, Krasny Horn. He suffered from severe headaches that the then medicine could not cope with. Only morphine saved. Doses increased and Tolstoy died from what is now commonly called "drug overdose."
Sofya Andreevna survived her husband by 20 years. After his death, she, showing good business qualities and professionalism, supervised the publication of the works of A.K. Tolstoy. And in her literary salon on Shpalernaya, all the artistic color of the capital gathered. At the end of her life she was very friendly with Dostoevsky. He revealed his literary ideas to her, and she invited him to play the role of the schema-monk in a home play based on her husband's play "The Death of Ivan the Terrible".
