Yasnaya Polyana

[Olga]

Yasnaya Polyana

Writers of the Golden Age of Russian prose were, as a rule, born and brought up in their family estates. Leo Tolstoy, who reached pan-European popularity as a novelist and philosopher, was not an exception: a count himself, he was an heir of the noble Volkonsky family. The grandfather from his mother's side, Prince Nikolay Volkonsky, once bought an estate near Tula, about 200 km from Moscow; this large estate later became the home of the Tolstoys, most famously among them, Leo. The estate was maintained until the 1917 revolution. But its value for our generation is not limited to a model prosperity; what impresses and even intrigues is how Tolstoy implied his philosophical views here, from the position of landlord. Moreover, several rooms can be described as real sanctuaries of literature, the very places where Tolstoy wrote most of his novels.

Yasnaya Polyana

[Olga]

As in many other old estates, there are plenty of landmarks here left behind from the times of Leo Tolstoy's ancestors. The model example greets the visitor upon entering the museum: two white stone towers that once served to hold the gate. Now there are no gates here, as metal grills were out even in Leo Tolstoy's time: towers bore special symbolic meaning for the writer, as protectors of his world and ‘silent guards' at the entrance.

Yasnaya Polyana

[Olga]

Further on, we are greeted by more evidence of pre-Tolstoy days: ponds, created by orders of Nikolay Volkonsky and Nikolay Tolstoy, father to Leo Tolstoy; the stone house, one of the oldest buildings of the estate; and the birch alley, that was first arranged from the entrance to the house by Nikolay Volkonsky. In the main estate house there are also plenty of items inherited by Leo Tolstoy from his grandfather. But let's have a more detailed look at what is now the main estate house. When Leo Tolstoy was born (1828), the Yasnaya Polyana main house consisted of the central building and two wings.

Leo Tolstoy's favorite bench

Yasnaya Polyana

[Olga]

Leo Tolstoy with his wife

Yasnaya Polyana

But while Leo Tolstoy was on military service, followed by several years in Saint-Petersburg, considerable financial troubles forced the relatives of the writer to sell the main section of the house for assembly in a neighboring estate. So, when in 1858 Tolstoy returned as the estate's owner, the right wing became the main estate house instead of the central building. As for the central building, it used to stand in one of the neighboring estates until 1915 when it was destroyed by fire. Tolstoy sometimes thought about buying it back, but considering his carefully cultivated modesty, there was no need for him to live in a full-size nobleman estate. Instead, some additions were made to the ex-wing that became Tolstoy's main house.

[Olga]

Tolstoy's study room

Yasnaya Polyana

The Hall, or rather the large first-floor room in the attachment to the house, served as the place to spend evenings with guests and members of the family. Here stand two pianos, three tables of different size, and lots of other furniture made in various different styling. Those more stylish were made in the époque of Tolstoy's ancestors; those more rough and functional are products of local craftsmen. The Hall is also the place where numerous portraits of Leo Tolstoy and members of his family are exhibited, as well as several sculptures. Nikolay Kramskoy and Ilya Repin made painted portraits of Tolstoy not by orders, but on their own volition - Leo Tolstoy was already famous as writer and thinker, so he proved to be quite an interesting model.

[Olga]

Tolstoy's bedroom

Yasnaya Polyana

The estate itself is also interesting to see. Tolstoy, a sufferer of deep spiritual depression, became philosophically and religious-minded. He intended to free himself from material values, and especially from those characteristic of noble persons. A vast estate, servants and other features of his title and property were quite a burden for Tolstoy, but the writer needed to tolerate them for the sake of his family. Making a one-person escape was the only way out, and at the very end of his life Tolstoy escaped from Yasnaya Polyana. This was the last stage of his decades-long sorrows and doubts - much like old Russian tsars who become monks before death.

[Olga]

room of Tolstoy's wife

Yasnaya Polyana

At Yasnaya Polyana, Tolstoy tried to make his status and title tolerable to his consciousness, not to mention his compassion for the ‘simple people', that is, the poor peasants. One of the buildings in the estate was turned into a free school for peasants' children: parents of these children were far from happy with their children out of home and work, as were the local authorities. As a result, the school soon closed; only children's manuals written by Tolstoy remain of this project. Instead of decorative, self indulging flowerbeds, Tolstoy cultivated ‘useful' vegetable gardens, and all sorts of fruit-bearing trees. Tolstoy used his woods for pedestrian and horse riding - he rode horses until the last year of his life. The study in the house, located near his bedroom, was his unpenetrable retreat in the early hours, the place where he read and wrote. Being rather unsocialable, Tolstoy forced his relatives and guests to keep silent until he ended his work - otherwise they experienced the full extent of the writer's anger.

[Olga]

Room under the vaults

Yasnaya Polyana

Tolstoy did not manage to make his ultimate escape. Soon after leaving Yasnaya Polyana he died of fever at a small railway station, tired of life and eager to die. But his grave is located in Yasnaya Polyana, as his body was returned home by orders of his devoted wife, Sophia. She was also the one who made the museum possible: in eight years (1910 - 18) she brought the estate to memorial order so that the museum was easily created under the Soviets. Luckily, Leo Tolstoy was considered positive from the Communist point of view, so the museum was approved by the regime. And today, one of the few estates that have escaped the forces of time and tragedy, Yasnaya Polyana can deliver a true image of how Tolstoy lived as a Russian nobleman - and, more importantly,how he tried to make the nobleman's life more moral and democratic.

Yasnaya Polyana

By Anton Razmakhnin Moscow news

The State Memorial and Natural Preserve “Museum-Estate of Leo Tolstoy “Yasnaya Polyana