Fyodor Ivanovich Tolstoy
Encyclopedia
Count Fyodor Ivanovich Tolstoy , also known as the "American" (Американец) (17 February 1782 – 5 November 1846) was a Russian nobleman from the well-known Tolstoy
family. Possessed of an unusual temper, he became famous for his gambling, his passion for duels, and his voyage to North America, where he earned his nickname. He was acquainted with many famous authors of his period and served as a prototype for some of the characters in their works.
.
Despite their high rank, the Tolstoys were at that time relatively poor, the result of a conflict with the authorities in the eighteenth century in which several members of the family were exiled or deprived of property. In order to ensure worthy careers for their sons, it was common in the Tolstoy family to send them to military schools. Thus, Fyodor Tolstoy, along with both his brothers, were educated at the Naval Cadet Corps in Saint Petersburg
.
While still a boy Tolstoy possessed, according to the memoirs of his contemporaries, an uncommon physical strength, endurance, and dexterity, which fulfilled the necessary prerequisites for a successful military career. At the same time, he already had an unpredictable, even cruel personality. In the cadet corps he mastered shooting and fencing, which made him an extremely dangerous opponent in duels. Upon finishing school Tolstoy went into service not in the navy, but in the elite Preobrazhensky regiment, perhaps owing to the assistance of influential relatives.
His comrades at that time, among others, the future literary critic Faddei Bulgarin
, described Tolstoy as an excellent shooter and a brave fighter. According to their memoirs, he had an energetic and passionate personality, but while fighting he was cool and resolute. His "wild" character, along with his taste for women and card games, gave him frequent cause for arguments with his comrades and higher officers that often ended in a violation of discipline. Moreover, Tolstoy was very rancorous and vengeful towards those who happened to anger him.
Among the nobility of early nineteenth-century Russia, excessive bravery and a deliberate search for dangerous adventures was widespread and highly valued, not only on the front, but also in daily life. As a result, duels remained very popular during this period and often arose out of the smallest arguments. This societal influence, as well as the individual traits of Tolstoy's character, explains his enthusiasm for duels. In 1799, at the age of 17, he fought his first duel with an officer who had reprimanded him for a violation of discipline. The details of this duel are unknown. There are also no reliable witnesses as to Tolstoy's punishment; several memoirs allege that he was demoted to the rank of a soldier, but other sources contradict this information.
as a member of the sloop
Nadezhda ("Hope"), captained by Adam Johann von Krusenstern
. This was the first circumnavigation of the world made by a ship under a Russian flag. How Tolstoy, who did not serve in the navy, came to be aboard the ship is unknown. Marya Kamenskaya, the daughter of his cousin, the subsequently famous artist Fyodor Petrovich Tolstoy
, writes in her memoirs that Tolstoy in this way cleverly avoided punishment in the Preobrazhensky regiment. According to Kamenskaya, he posed as his cousin and namesake, who was on the crew of the ship but who did not wish to sail because he suffered from seasickness.
The ship Nadezhda, as well as the accompanying sloop Neva under the command of Yuri Lisyansky
, set sail in August 1803 from Kronstadt
. In addition to its exploratory goals, the expedition was also meant to help establish diplomatic and economic relations between Russia and Japan, for which the party included a large diplomatic delegation headed by Nikolai Rezanov
. The Nadezhda took a route across the Baltic Sea
and the Atlantic Ocean, past the Canary Islands
and Brazil
, after which the ship rounded Cape Horn
and set across the Pacific Ocean towards Japan, making stops at the Marquesas
and the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands
, and also at Kamchatka. After visiting Japan, the Nadezhda and the Neva set off towards Sitka, Alaska
, sailed past China and Macao
on the Indian Ocean
, then rounded Africa and came back across the Baltic Sea to Kronstadt. The voyage lasted a total of more than three years, from August 7, 1803, to August 19, 1806.
Tolstoy's behavior on board, where he was unencumbered by official duties, was very unpredictable. He often provoked quarrels with other members of the team, including the captain himself. In addition, Tolstoy permitted himself some japes when addressing members of the crew that he did not like: for example, once he intoxicated the priest accompanying the Neva, and when the latter lay dead drunk on the floor, Tolstoy stuck his beard to the deck boards with sealing wax. When the priest came to, he was obliged to cut off his beard to free himself. On another occasion, when Krusenstern was gone from his cabin, Tolstoy sneaked into his cabin with a ship's pet, an orangutan
that Tolstoy had bought while the ship was moored on an island in the Pacific Ocean. He took Krusenstern's logbook, put a blank sheet of paper on top and began to show the ape how to cover the paper with ink. Then he left the orangutan alone in the cabin, who went on drawing on the notebook. When Krusenstern returned, all his records had already been destroyed.
Similar behavior more than once caused Tolstoy to be put under arrest. Finally, Krusenstern lost patience and abandoned the passenger during a stop at Kamchatka. Further details of Tolstoy's travels are known only through his own not always credible accounts. From Kamchatka Tolstoy managed to get to one of the Aleutian islands or to Sitka island, where he spent several months among Alaskan natives of the Tlinkit tribe. It is possible that he got from Kamchatka to Sitka on the ship Neva, after he was dropped off by the Nadezhda. During his sojourn on Sitka (or according to other sources, during the earlier stop of the Nadezhda stop in the Marquesas), he acquired multiple tattoo
s, which he later displayed with pride to curious acquaintances. The afore-mentioned orangutan, which was left on land with Tolstoy and whose later fate is unknown, gave rise to a great deal of gossip in aristocratic circles. According to one of the rumors, during his stay in Kamchatka, Tolstoy lived together with the ape; according to others, he ate it.
At any rate, Tolstoy's return to European Russia via the Far East
, Siberia
, the Urals
and the Volga Region
, was probably full of adventures, the details of which only Tolstoy knew. According to his accounts, a merchant ship picked him up in Alask and dropped him off at Petropavlosk
, from where Tolstoy wound his way overland to Petersburg on carts, on sleighs, and partly on foot. One of the few written testimonies of this odyssey is found in the "Notes" of the writer Philip Vigel, which only resurfaced in 1892. Vigel, who traveled around Russia at the beginning of the nineteenth century to study Russian daily life, met Tolstoy in Udmurtia
and described this episode in the following way: "At one of the stations we were surprised to see an officer approach us in a uniform of the Preobrazhensky Corps. This was Count F. I. Tolstoy . . . . He was traveling around the world with Krusentstern and Rezanov, quarreled with all, drove all to quarrel, and as a dangerous person was put ashore at Kamchatka and made his way across land back to Petersburg. What hasn't been said about him . . . ."
Tolstoy's voyage concluded with his arrival in Petersburg at the beginning of August 1805. Thanks to his adventures, which gave rise to much gossip in high society, the count acquired an almost legendary celebrity, as well as the lifelong nickname "the American", referring his stay in Russian America
.
Immediately upon Tolstoy's arrival in Petersburg, he was greeted with new problems: he was arrested at the city gates and sent to the guardhouse. Moreover, a special ukase
from Alexander I
forbad him from entering the capital.
Tolstoy's scandalous past also disrupted his military career. He was demoted from the elite Preobrazhensky regiment to a post in the little-known Neishlott
fortress, where he served from 1805 to 1808. Philippe Vigel wrote regarding this onerous period for Tolstoy: "the punishment was severe for the brave man, who had never seen battle, especially during a time when all Europe, from west to east, had broken out in war."
Only Tolstoy's friendship with the commander Mikhail Dolgorukov helped the count in the end to get a post as an aide-de-camp on the front during the recently begun Finnish War
. There Tolstoy was in his element: he actively participated in the battles, including the battle of Idensalmi
, in which Dolgorukov died. A while after, Tolstoy, risking his life, headed a reconnaissance detachment during an operation of the shores of the Gulf of Bothnia
, thanks to which the corps under the command of General Michael Barclay de Tolly
managed to cross the ice of the gulf and occupy the city of Umeå
without casualties. These feats, which facilitated Russia's rapid victory, rehabilitated Tolstoy in the eyes of the command, and from 31 October 1808 he was allowed to serve in the Preobrazhensky Regiment as a lieutenant.
A few months later, however, Tolstoy fought two more duels. In the first of these he mortally wounded his comrade and captain, whom he himself had provoked by spreading sordid rumors about his sister. A few days later there followed a duel with the young ensign Naryshkin, who had asserted that Tolstoy had cheated him in a card game; Naryshkin challenged Tolstoy to a duel and was also killed. After this, Tolstoy was for several months confined to a guardhouse in the Vyborg
fortress, and on 2 October 1811 he was dismissed from the army.
Less than a year afterwards, Tolstoy returned to the war, this time as a volunteer in the defense of Moscow during the French invasion of Russia
. During the Battle of Borodino
, he was severely wounded in the knee. On the recommendation of General Nikolai Rayevsky
, who in a letter to Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov mentioned Tolstoy's bravery, Tolstoy received the Cross of St. George
, fourth rank. Moreover, Tolstoy was once again rehabilitated and received the rank of colonel. At the end of the war he finally left the army and settled down in Moscow.
, Vasily Zhukovsky
, Aleksandr Griboyedov, Konstantin Batyushkov
, Pyotr Vyazemsky
, Denis Davydov
, Nikolai Gogol
, and Aleksandr Pushkin.
Even more famous was Tolstoy's participation in a number of duels, the reasons for which were often found in card games. It is unknown how many duels Tolstoy fought in his life, but some accounts state that he killed eleven men altogether in duels. For Tolstoy, duels were evidently not only a way of vindicating his honor—as was accepted in officers' circles in Russia—but also an ordinary pastime. Once Tolstoy had to serve as a second in the duel of one of his closest friends. Fearing for the life of his friend, Tolstoy decided to intervene to prevent the worst: before the duel was held, he himself challenged his friend's opponent and killed him. Leo Tolstoy, the first cousin once removed of Fyodor, whom he knew from his early childhood, used to recount this event.
This marriage lasted until Tolstoy's death. Tugayeva gave birth to twelve children, however, only one reached the age of maturity: their daughter Praskovya Fyodorovna, who lived till 1887. Tolstoy and Tugayeva's eldest daughter, Sarra, possessed of a poetic gift, but very unhealthy both physically and mentally, died at the age of 17 of consumption
. All the other children were born dead or died in infancy.
A notorious quarrel between them began in 1820 after Pushkin fell into disgrace because of his poems and was exiled to Ekaterinoslav
, then to the Caucasus
, Crimea
and Bessarabia
. During this time Tolstoy spread a rumor in Moscow, intentionally or unintentionally, that Pushkin was flogged by the police before his departure into exile. Hearing about this false rumor, the temperamental and sensitive Pushkin was so offended that he swore to challenge Tolstoy to a duel upon his return from exile. Moreover, the poet answered Tolstoy with the epigram "В жизни мрачной и презренной…" ("In a gloomy and despicable life...") and harsh verses in a message "To Chaadayev": "Or a philosopher, who in his early years / Amazed the world with his depravity, / But, becoming enlightened, made amends for his disgrace: / He quit drinking wine and became a cardsharp?" It is curious that when, during the publication of the poem, the words "or a philosopher" (или философа) were changed to "a fool-philosopher" (глупца-философа), Pushkin strongly objected: "'A fool-philosopher' is printed; why a fool? The poem refers to the American Tolstoy, who is not a fool at all".
While in exile, Pushkin assiduously prepared himself for the duel, practicing his shooting on a regular basis. On September 8, 1826, almost immediately after returning to Moscow, he sent Tolstoy his challenge. The duel was prevented then only by Tolstoy's accidental absence from Moscow.
A while later the known bibliographer and friend of Pushkin Sergei Sobolevsky managed to reconcile Pushkin with Tolstoy. Tolstoy was possibly also interested in reconciliation, as he knew that killing Pushkin would probably cut off his relations with many famous poets whose friendship he valued. In subsequent years Tolstoy and Pushkin even became friends. Thus in 1829, Pushkin entrusted Tolstoy with the delivery of a letter to Tolstoy's acquaintance and Pushkin's future mother-in-law, Natalya Nikolayevna Goncharova, in which he declared himself a suitor for the hand of her 17-year-old daughter Natalya. Although the elder Goncharova could not give Pushkin a definite answer, Pushkin eventually succeeded in his suit, and in 1831, he and Natalya were married.
During this time, Tolstoy no longer fought duels and played cards only seldom. Instead, he prayed more and more, attempting to atone for the sins of his youth. Sometimes he went abroad to take the waters, spending time in various European countries.
One of Tolstoy's best-known acquaintances during these years was Aleksandr Herzen
, who reminisced about Tolstoy a decade later in his book, My Past and Thoughts (Былое и думы):
Tolstoy died on November 5, 1846, after a short illness, in his Moscow home in the presence of his wife and only surviving daughter Praskovya. According to the recollections of his close friends, before his death he summoned a priest and confessed to him for several hours. Tolstoy was buried in the Vagankavo Cemetery. His widow Avdotya outlived him by fifteen years and died a violent death: she was stabbed by her own cook in 1861. The Tolstoy's house on Sivtsev Vrazhek near the old Arbat was not preserved: it was destroyed in the 1950s to make way for the "Kremlin" clinic.
(1823–1831) Tolstoy appears as the duellist Zaretsky, Lensky's second in his duel with the main character, Onegin. Pushkin depicts Zaretsky/Tolstoy in the following way:
These lines show that Tolstoy had made peace with Tolstoy: Pushkin refers to him as an "honorable man", who has transformed from an "arch-rake" into a "paterfamilias", with, however, the label "unwed"—an allusion to his long-lasting ménage with the gypsy Tugayeva. Further on in the story, Pushkin displays his friendship with Tolstoy:
Yuri Lotman
agrees that fundamentally Zaretsky was based on Tolstoy, but concludes that Pushkin subjected this real prototype to a significant reworking. In particular, unlike Zaretsky, who fell off his "Kalmyk horse" and was captured, Tolstoy was an infantry officer, who was never in captivity.
the character Repetilov refers to Tolstoy in a monologue, calling him a "nighttime robber and duellist" with "unclean hands", who was "exiled to Kamchatka and came back as an Aleutian
". Tolstoy himself wrote corrections into one of the manuscripts. He modified the phrase "he was exiled to Kamchatka" to "the devil took him to Kamchatka", noting that he was never exiled, and limited the line about "unclean hands" to include "at cards", remarking that "for a true likeness these corrections are necessary, so that people will not think, that [this character] steals snuffboxes from tables". Tolstoy also accused Griboyedov of implying that he was a bribetaker. When Griboyedov objected, saying "but you do play unfairly, after all", Tolstoy responded, "Only that? Well you should have written it that way."
Tolstoy loved to dwell on this line, bringing it up on many occasions. At one of the first performances of Woe from Wit, Tolstoy, who was seated in the audience, stood up after Repetilov's speech and shouted, "I never took bribes, because I never served [in the government]!", a quip that was greeted with applause.
Tolstoy
Tolstoy, or Tolstoi is a prominent family of Russian nobility, descending from Andrey Kharitonovich Tolstoy who served under Vasily II of Moscow...
family. Possessed of an unusual temper, he became famous for his gambling, his passion for duels, and his voyage to North America, where he earned his nickname. He was acquainted with many famous authors of his period and served as a prototype for some of the characters in their works.
Childhood and Youth
Tolstoy was one of seven children of Count Ivan Andreyevich Tolstoy (1747–1811) and his wife Anna Fyodorovna, who came from the Maikov family. Fyodor Tolstoy's place of birth is not known for certain; most likely he was born on the ancestral estate of the Tolstoys near KologrivKologriv
Kologriv is a town and the administrative center of Kologrivsky District of Kostroma Oblast, Russia, located on the left bank of the Unzha River northeast of Kostroma. Population:...
.
Despite their high rank, the Tolstoys were at that time relatively poor, the result of a conflict with the authorities in the eighteenth century in which several members of the family were exiled or deprived of property. In order to ensure worthy careers for their sons, it was common in the Tolstoy family to send them to military schools. Thus, Fyodor Tolstoy, along with both his brothers, were educated at the Naval Cadet Corps in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
.
While still a boy Tolstoy possessed, according to the memoirs of his contemporaries, an uncommon physical strength, endurance, and dexterity, which fulfilled the necessary prerequisites for a successful military career. At the same time, he already had an unpredictable, even cruel personality. In the cadet corps he mastered shooting and fencing, which made him an extremely dangerous opponent in duels. Upon finishing school Tolstoy went into service not in the navy, but in the elite Preobrazhensky regiment, perhaps owing to the assistance of influential relatives.
His comrades at that time, among others, the future literary critic Faddei Bulgarin
Faddei Bulgarin
Faddey Venediktovich Bulgarin , was a Polish-born Russian writer and journalist whose self-imposed mission was to popularize the authoritarian policies of Alexander I and Nicholas I.-Life and career:...
, described Tolstoy as an excellent shooter and a brave fighter. According to their memoirs, he had an energetic and passionate personality, but while fighting he was cool and resolute. His "wild" character, along with his taste for women and card games, gave him frequent cause for arguments with his comrades and higher officers that often ended in a violation of discipline. Moreover, Tolstoy was very rancorous and vengeful towards those who happened to anger him.
Among the nobility of early nineteenth-century Russia, excessive bravery and a deliberate search for dangerous adventures was widespread and highly valued, not only on the front, but also in daily life. As a result, duels remained very popular during this period and often arose out of the smallest arguments. This societal influence, as well as the individual traits of Tolstoy's character, explains his enthusiasm for duels. In 1799, at the age of 17, he fought his first duel with an officer who had reprimanded him for a violation of discipline. The details of this duel are unknown. There are also no reliable witnesses as to Tolstoy's punishment; several memoirs allege that he was demoted to the rank of a soldier, but other sources contradict this information.
World tour
In 1803 Tolstoy went on a circumnavigation of the worldFirst Russian circumnavigation
The first Russian circumnavigation of the Earth took place from August 1803 to August 1806. It was sponsored by Count Nikolay Rumyantsev and was headed by Adam Johann von Krusenstern.-Events:...
as a member of the sloop
Sloop-of-war
In the 18th and most of the 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. As the rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above, this meant that the term sloop-of-war actually encompassed all the unrated combat vessels including the...
Nadezhda ("Hope"), captained by Adam Johann von Krusenstern
Adam Johann von Krusenstern
Adam Johann Ritter von Krusenstern , was an admiral and explorer, who led the first Russian circumnavigation of the globe.- Life :...
. This was the first circumnavigation of the world made by a ship under a Russian flag. How Tolstoy, who did not serve in the navy, came to be aboard the ship is unknown. Marya Kamenskaya, the daughter of his cousin, the subsequently famous artist Fyodor Petrovich Tolstoy
Fyodor Petrovich Tolstoy
Count Fyodor Petrovich Tolstoy was a Russian artist who served as Vice-President of the Imperial Academy of Arts for forty years . His works — wax-reliefs, watercolours, medallions, and silhouettes — are distinguished by a cool detachment and spare and economical classicism.Fyodor Tolstoy came...
, writes in her memoirs that Tolstoy in this way cleverly avoided punishment in the Preobrazhensky regiment. According to Kamenskaya, he posed as his cousin and namesake, who was on the crew of the ship but who did not wish to sail because he suffered from seasickness.
The ship Nadezhda, as well as the accompanying sloop Neva under the command of Yuri Lisyansky
Yuri Lisyansky
Yuri Fyodorovich Lisyansky was an officer in the Imperial Russian Navy and explorer of Ukrainian origin....
, set sail in August 1803 from Kronstadt
Kronstadt
Kronstadt , also spelled Kronshtadt, Cronstadt |crown]]" and Stadt for "city"); is a municipal town in Kronshtadtsky District of the federal city of St. Petersburg, Russia, located on Kotlin Island, west of Saint Petersburg proper near the head of the Gulf of Finland. Population: It is also...
. In addition to its exploratory goals, the expedition was also meant to help establish diplomatic and economic relations between Russia and Japan, for which the party included a large diplomatic delegation headed by Nikolai Rezanov
Nikolai Rezanov
Nikolay Petrovich Rezanov was a Russian nobleman and statesman who promoted the project of Russian colonization of Alaska and California. One of the ten barons of Russia, he was the first Russian ambassador to Japan , and participated in the first Russian circumnavigation of the globe ,...
. The Nadezhda took a route across the Baltic Sea
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
and the Atlantic Ocean, past the Canary Islands
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
and Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, after which the ship rounded Cape Horn
Cape Horn
Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island...
and set across the Pacific Ocean towards Japan, making stops at the Marquesas
Marquesas Islands
The Marquesas Islands enana and Te Fenua `Enata , both meaning "The Land of Men") are a group of volcanic islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in the southern Pacific Ocean. The Marquesas are located at 9° 00S, 139° 30W...
and the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands
Hawaiian Islands
The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll...
, and also at Kamchatka. After visiting Japan, the Nadezhda and the Neva set off towards Sitka, Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
, sailed past China and Macao
Mação
Mação is a municipality in Portugal with a total area of 400.0 km² and a total population of 7,763 inhabitants.The municipality is composed of eight parishes, and is located in the Santarém District....
on the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
, then rounded Africa and came back across the Baltic Sea to Kronstadt. The voyage lasted a total of more than three years, from August 7, 1803, to August 19, 1806.
Tolstoy's behavior on board, where he was unencumbered by official duties, was very unpredictable. He often provoked quarrels with other members of the team, including the captain himself. In addition, Tolstoy permitted himself some japes when addressing members of the crew that he did not like: for example, once he intoxicated the priest accompanying the Neva, and when the latter lay dead drunk on the floor, Tolstoy stuck his beard to the deck boards with sealing wax. When the priest came to, he was obliged to cut off his beard to free himself. On another occasion, when Krusenstern was gone from his cabin, Tolstoy sneaked into his cabin with a ship's pet, an orangutan
Orangutan
Orangutans are the only exclusively Asian genus of extant great ape. The largest living arboreal animals, they have proportionally longer arms than the other, more terrestrial, great apes. They are among the most intelligent primates and use a variety of sophisticated tools, also making sleeping...
that Tolstoy had bought while the ship was moored on an island in the Pacific Ocean. He took Krusenstern's logbook, put a blank sheet of paper on top and began to show the ape how to cover the paper with ink. Then he left the orangutan alone in the cabin, who went on drawing on the notebook. When Krusenstern returned, all his records had already been destroyed.
Similar behavior more than once caused Tolstoy to be put under arrest. Finally, Krusenstern lost patience and abandoned the passenger during a stop at Kamchatka. Further details of Tolstoy's travels are known only through his own not always credible accounts. From Kamchatka Tolstoy managed to get to one of the Aleutian islands or to Sitka island, where he spent several months among Alaskan natives of the Tlinkit tribe. It is possible that he got from Kamchatka to Sitka on the ship Neva, after he was dropped off by the Nadezhda. During his sojourn on Sitka (or according to other sources, during the earlier stop of the Nadezhda stop in the Marquesas), he acquired multiple tattoo
Tattoo
A tattoo is made by inserting indelible ink into the dermis layer of the skin to change the pigment. Tattoos on humans are a type of body modification, and tattoos on other animals are most commonly used for identification purposes...
s, which he later displayed with pride to curious acquaintances. The afore-mentioned orangutan, which was left on land with Tolstoy and whose later fate is unknown, gave rise to a great deal of gossip in aristocratic circles. According to one of the rumors, during his stay in Kamchatka, Tolstoy lived together with the ape; according to others, he ate it.
At any rate, Tolstoy's return to European Russia via the Far East
Far East
The Far East is an English term mostly describing East Asia and Southeast Asia, with South Asia sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.The term came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 19th century,...
, Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
, the Urals
Ural Mountains
The Ural Mountains , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the Ural River and northwestern Kazakhstan. Their eastern side is usually considered the natural boundary between Europe and Asia...
and the Volga Region
Volga Region
Volga Region is a historical region of Russia that encompasses the territories adjacent to the flow of Volga River. According to the flow of the river, it is usually classified into the Middle Volga Region and Lower Volga Region...
, was probably full of adventures, the details of which only Tolstoy knew. According to his accounts, a merchant ship picked him up in Alask and dropped him off at Petropavlosk
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky
Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky is the main city and the administrative, industrial, scientific, and cultural center of Kamchatka Krai, Russia. Population: .-History:It was founded by Danish navigator Vitus Bering, in the service of the Russian Navy...
, from where Tolstoy wound his way overland to Petersburg on carts, on sleighs, and partly on foot. One of the few written testimonies of this odyssey is found in the "Notes" of the writer Philip Vigel, which only resurfaced in 1892. Vigel, who traveled around Russia at the beginning of the nineteenth century to study Russian daily life, met Tolstoy in Udmurtia
Udmurtia
The Udmurt Republic , or Udmurtia is a federal subject of Russia . Its capital is the city of Izhevsk. Population: -History:...
and described this episode in the following way: "At one of the stations we were surprised to see an officer approach us in a uniform of the Preobrazhensky Corps. This was Count F. I. Tolstoy . . . . He was traveling around the world with Krusentstern and Rezanov, quarreled with all, drove all to quarrel, and as a dangerous person was put ashore at Kamchatka and made his way across land back to Petersburg. What hasn't been said about him . . . ."
Tolstoy's voyage concluded with his arrival in Petersburg at the beginning of August 1805. Thanks to his adventures, which gave rise to much gossip in high society, the count acquired an almost legendary celebrity, as well as the lifelong nickname "the American", referring his stay in Russian America
Russian colonization of the Americas
The Russian colonization of the Americas covers the period, from 1732 to 1867, when the Tsarist Imperial Russian Empire laid claim to northern Pacific Coast territories in the Americas...
.
War
Ukase
A ukase , in Imperial Russia, was a proclamation of the tsar, government, or a religious leader that had the force of law...
from Alexander I
Alexander I of Russia
Alexander I of Russia , served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and the first Russian King of Poland from 1815 to 1825. He was also the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania....
forbad him from entering the capital.
Tolstoy's scandalous past also disrupted his military career. He was demoted from the elite Preobrazhensky regiment to a post in the little-known Neishlott
Savonlinna
Savonlinna is a town and a municipality of inhabitants in the southeast of Finland, in the heart of the Saimaa lake region. The Finnish name of the town means "Castle of Savonia" and the Swedish name means "Newcastle".- History :...
fortress, where he served from 1805 to 1808. Philippe Vigel wrote regarding this onerous period for Tolstoy: "the punishment was severe for the brave man, who had never seen battle, especially during a time when all Europe, from west to east, had broken out in war."
Only Tolstoy's friendship with the commander Mikhail Dolgorukov helped the count in the end to get a post as an aide-de-camp on the front during the recently begun Finnish War
Finnish War
The Finnish War was fought between Sweden and the Russian Empire from February 1808 to September 1809. As a result of the war, the eastern third of Sweden was established as the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland within the Russian Empire...
. There Tolstoy was in his element: he actively participated in the battles, including the battle of Idensalmi
Iisalmi
Iisalmi is a town and municipality of Finland.It is located in the province of Eastern Finland and is part of the Northern Savonia region. The municipality has a population of and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is...
, in which Dolgorukov died. A while after, Tolstoy, risking his life, headed a reconnaissance detachment during an operation of the shores of the Gulf of Bothnia
Gulf of Bothnia
The Gulf of Bothnia is the northernmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It is situated between Finland's west coast and Sweden's east coast. In the south of the gulf lie the Åland Islands, between the Sea of Åland and the Archipelago Sea.-Name:...
, thanks to which the corps under the command of General Michael Barclay de Tolly
Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly
Prince Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly , was a Russian Field Marshal and Minister of War during Napoleon's invasion in 1812 and War of the Sixth Coalition.-Early life:...
managed to cross the ice of the gulf and occupy the city of Umeå
Umeå
- Transport :The road infrastructure in Umeå is well-developed, with two European highways passing through the city. About 4 km from the city centre is the Umeå City Airport...
without casualties. These feats, which facilitated Russia's rapid victory, rehabilitated Tolstoy in the eyes of the command, and from 31 October 1808 he was allowed to serve in the Preobrazhensky Regiment as a lieutenant.
A few months later, however, Tolstoy fought two more duels. In the first of these he mortally wounded his comrade and captain, whom he himself had provoked by spreading sordid rumors about his sister. A few days later there followed a duel with the young ensign Naryshkin, who had asserted that Tolstoy had cheated him in a card game; Naryshkin challenged Tolstoy to a duel and was also killed. After this, Tolstoy was for several months confined to a guardhouse in the Vyborg
Vyborg
Vyborg is a town in Leningrad Oblast, Russia, situated on the Karelian Isthmus near the head of the Bay of Vyborg, to the northwest of St. Petersburg and south from Russia's border with Finland, where the Saimaa Canal enters the Gulf of Finland...
fortress, and on 2 October 1811 he was dismissed from the army.
Less than a year afterwards, Tolstoy returned to the war, this time as a volunteer in the defense of Moscow during the French invasion of Russia
French invasion of Russia
The French invasion of Russia of 1812 was a turning point in the Napoleonic Wars. It reduced the French and allied invasion forces to a tiny fraction of their initial strength and triggered a major shift in European politics as it dramatically weakened French hegemony in Europe...
. During the Battle of Borodino
Battle of Borodino
The Battle of Borodino , fought on September 7, 1812, was the largest and bloodiest single-day action of the French invasion of Russia and all Napoleonic Wars, involving more than 250,000 troops and resulting in at least 70,000 casualties...
, he was severely wounded in the knee. On the recommendation of General Nikolai Rayevsky
Nikolay Raevsky
Nikolay Nikolayevich Raevsky was a Russian general and statesman who achieved fame for his feats of arms during the Napoleonic wars. His family left a lasting legacy in Russian society and culture.-Early life:Nikolay Raevsky was born in Saint Petersburg...
, who in a letter to Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov mentioned Tolstoy's bravery, Tolstoy received the Cross of St. George
Cross of St. George
thumb|Original Cross of St. George.Ist and 2nd class were in gold.The Cross of St. George ', or simply the George's Cross, was, until 1913, officially known as the Sign of Distinction of the Military Order of St. George....
, fourth rank. Moreover, Tolstoy was once again rehabilitated and received the rank of colonel. At the end of the war he finally left the army and settled down in Moscow.
In Moscow
From 1812 until his death Tolstoy lived most of his life in Moscow, in a house on Sivtsev Vrazhek lane. His notorious, almost heroic past earned him fame in the Moscow aristocratic circles, and Tolstoy took advantage of his celebrity. He regularly took part in noble gatherings and balls, and he himself organized several festive soirées and had a reputation as a refined gastronome. Owing to the erudition that he had gained in military school, he easily conversed with representatives of the creative intelligentsia, and became friends with many of them. Among his friends were the writers Evgeny BaratynskyEvgeny Baratynsky
Yevgeny Abramovich Baratynsky was lauded by Alexander Pushkin as the finest Russian elegiac poet. After a long period when his reputation was on the wane, Baratynsky was rediscovered by Anna Akhmatova and Joseph Brodsky as a supreme poet of thought.- Life :Of noble ancestry, Baratynsky was...
, Vasily Zhukovsky
Vasily Zhukovsky
Vasily Andreyevich Zhukovsky was the foremost Russian poet of the 1810s and a leading figure in Russian literature in the first half of the 19th century...
, Aleksandr Griboyedov, Konstantin Batyushkov
Konstantin Batyushkov
Konstantin Nikolayevich Batyushkov was a Russian poet, essayist and translator of the Romantic era.-Biography:The early years of Konstantin Batyushkov's life are difficult to reconstruct...
, Pyotr Vyazemsky
Pyotr Vyazemsky
Prince Pyotr Andreyevich Vyazemsky or Petr Andreevich Viazemsky was a leading personality of the Golden Age of Russian poetry.- Biography :...
, Denis Davydov
Denis Davydov
Denis Vasilyevich Davydov was a Russian soldier-poet of the Napoleonic Wars who invented a specific genre – hussar poetry noted for its hedonism and bravado – and spectacularly designed his own life to illustrate such poetry.-Biography:...
, Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was a Ukrainian-born Russian dramatist and novelist.Considered by his contemporaries one of the preeminent figures of the natural school of Russian literary realism, later critics have found in Gogol's work a fundamentally romantic sensibility, with strains of Surrealism...
, and Aleksandr Pushkin.
Card games and duels
Tolstoy loved gambling and became particularly famous for this during his years in Moscow. He did not hide the fact that he sometimes cheated. According to the memoirs of his contemporaries, Tolstoy did not like to rely on luck during a game, preferring, by way of cardsharping, to "play for certain", since "only fools rely on luck", as he himself liked to say. A. N. Vulf recounts that once when Pushkin met Tolstoy playing cards, he remarked upon his cheating, to which Tolstoy replied, "Yes, I know that myself, but I do not like to be reminded of it." Partly owing to his cheating, Tolstoy often won large sums of money, which he in general spent rapidly and capriciously on society life. At other times Tolstoy became the victim of other cardsharps and suffered great losses.Even more famous was Tolstoy's participation in a number of duels, the reasons for which were often found in card games. It is unknown how many duels Tolstoy fought in his life, but some accounts state that he killed eleven men altogether in duels. For Tolstoy, duels were evidently not only a way of vindicating his honor—as was accepted in officers' circles in Russia—but also an ordinary pastime. Once Tolstoy had to serve as a second in the duel of one of his closest friends. Fearing for the life of his friend, Tolstoy decided to intervene to prevent the worst: before the duel was held, he himself challenged his friend's opponent and killed him. Leo Tolstoy, the first cousin once removed of Fyodor, whom he knew from his early childhood, used to recount this event.
Personal life
In his early years in Moscow, Tolstoy's love affairs provided copious material for rumor and gossip in society. He married the gypsy dancer Avdotya Tugayeva on January 10, 1821, but only after having lived with her for several years. Marya Kamenskaya's memoirs explain the reason for this marriage:This marriage lasted until Tolstoy's death. Tugayeva gave birth to twelve children, however, only one reached the age of maturity: their daughter Praskovya Fyodorovna, who lived till 1887. Tolstoy and Tugayeva's eldest daughter, Sarra, possessed of a poetic gift, but very unhealthy both physically and mentally, died at the age of 17 of consumption
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
. All the other children were born dead or died in infancy.
Relationship with Pushkin
One of the best-known aspects of Count Tolstoy's life in Moscow was his not always friendly relationship with the poet Aleksandr Pushkin. Pushkin and Tolstoy met for the first time in the spring of 1819.A notorious quarrel between them began in 1820 after Pushkin fell into disgrace because of his poems and was exiled to Ekaterinoslav
Dnipropetrovsk
Dnipropetrovsk or Dnepropetrovsk formerly Yekaterinoslav is Ukraine's third largest city with one million inhabitants. It is located southeast of Ukraine's capital Kiev on the Dnieper River, in the south-central region of the country...
, then to the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
, Crimea
Crimea
Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...
and Bessarabia
Bessarabia
Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....
. During this time Tolstoy spread a rumor in Moscow, intentionally or unintentionally, that Pushkin was flogged by the police before his departure into exile. Hearing about this false rumor, the temperamental and sensitive Pushkin was so offended that he swore to challenge Tolstoy to a duel upon his return from exile. Moreover, the poet answered Tolstoy with the epigram "В жизни мрачной и презренной…" ("In a gloomy and despicable life...") and harsh verses in a message "To Chaadayev": "Or a philosopher, who in his early years / Amazed the world with his depravity, / But, becoming enlightened, made amends for his disgrace: / He quit drinking wine and became a cardsharp?" It is curious that when, during the publication of the poem, the words "or a philosopher" (или философа) were changed to "a fool-philosopher" (глупца-философа), Pushkin strongly objected: "'A fool-philosopher' is printed; why a fool? The poem refers to the American Tolstoy, who is not a fool at all".
While in exile, Pushkin assiduously prepared himself for the duel, practicing his shooting on a regular basis. On September 8, 1826, almost immediately after returning to Moscow, he sent Tolstoy his challenge. The duel was prevented then only by Tolstoy's accidental absence from Moscow.
A while later the known bibliographer and friend of Pushkin Sergei Sobolevsky managed to reconcile Pushkin with Tolstoy. Tolstoy was possibly also interested in reconciliation, as he knew that killing Pushkin would probably cut off his relations with many famous poets whose friendship he valued. In subsequent years Tolstoy and Pushkin even became friends. Thus in 1829, Pushkin entrusted Tolstoy with the delivery of a letter to Tolstoy's acquaintance and Pushkin's future mother-in-law, Natalya Nikolayevna Goncharova, in which he declared himself a suitor for the hand of her 17-year-old daughter Natalya. Although the elder Goncharova could not give Pushkin a definite answer, Pushkin eventually succeeded in his suit, and in 1831, he and Natalya were married.
Final years
Tolstoy suffered greatly from the death of his children, especially when his eldest daughter, Sarra, died at the age of seventeen. Some of Tolstoy's friends recounted later that by the end of his life grew devout and considered the death of his eleven children to be God's punishment for his killing of eleven men in duels.During this time, Tolstoy no longer fought duels and played cards only seldom. Instead, he prayed more and more, attempting to atone for the sins of his youth. Sometimes he went abroad to take the waters, spending time in various European countries.
One of Tolstoy's best-known acquaintances during these years was Aleksandr Herzen
Alexander Herzen
Aleksandr Ivanovich Herzen was a Russian pro-Western writer and thinker known as the "father of Russian socialism", and one of the main fathers of agrarian populism...
, who reminisced about Tolstoy a decade later in his book, My Past and Thoughts (Былое и думы):
Tolstoy died on November 5, 1846, after a short illness, in his Moscow home in the presence of his wife and only surviving daughter Praskovya. According to the recollections of his close friends, before his death he summoned a priest and confessed to him for several hours. Tolstoy was buried in the Vagankavo Cemetery. His widow Avdotya outlived him by fifteen years and died a violent death: she was stabbed by her own cook in 1861. The Tolstoy's house on Sivtsev Vrazhek near the old Arbat was not preserved: it was destroyed in the 1950s to make way for the "Kremlin" clinic.
Pushkin
Owing to his notorious past and to his close acquaintance with many authors, Tolstoy became the prototype for some of the characters in their books, the most famous of whom was Aleksandr Pushkin. In his novel in verse Eugene OneginEugene Onegin
Eugene Onegin is a novel in verse written by Alexander Pushkin.It is a classic of Russian literature, and its eponymous protagonist has served as the model for a number of Russian literary heroes . It was published in serial form between 1825 and 1832...
(1823–1831) Tolstoy appears as the duellist Zaretsky, Lensky's second in his duel with the main character, Onegin. Pushkin depicts Zaretsky/Tolstoy in the following way:
- Five versts or so from Krasnogórie,
- Lensky's estate, there lives and still
- thrives to this moment, in a station
- of philosophic isolation,
- Zarétsky, sometime king of brawls
- and hetmanHetmanHetman was the title of the second-highest military commander in 15th- to 18th-century Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which together, from 1569 to 1795, comprised the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, or Rzeczpospolita....
of the gambling-halls, - arch-rake, pothouse tribune-persona,
- but now grown plain and kind in stead,
- paterfamiliasPater familiasThe pater familias, also written as paterfamilias was the head of a Roman family. The term is Latin for "father of the family" or the "owner of the family estate". The form is irregular and archaic in Latin, preserving the old genitive ending in -as...
(unwed), - unswerving friend, correct landowner,
- and even honourable man:
- so, if we want to change, we can!
These lines show that Tolstoy had made peace with Tolstoy: Pushkin refers to him as an "honorable man", who has transformed from an "arch-rake" into a "paterfamilias", with, however, the label "unwed"—an allusion to his long-lasting ménage with the gypsy Tugayeva. Further on in the story, Pushkin displays his friendship with Tolstoy:
- He was no fool; appreciated
- by my Eugene, not for his heart,
- but for the effect that he created
- of sense and judgement. For his part
- his converse gave Onegin pleasure...
Yuri Lotman
Yuri Lotman
Yuri Mikhailovich Lotman – a prominent Soviet literary scholar, semiotician, and cultural historian. Member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences...
agrees that fundamentally Zaretsky was based on Tolstoy, but concludes that Pushkin subjected this real prototype to a significant reworking. In particular, unlike Zaretsky, who fell off his "Kalmyk horse" and was captured, Tolstoy was an infantry officer, who was never in captivity.
Griboyedov
The other famous poet who used Tolstoy as a model was Aleksandr Griboyedov. In his comedy Woe from WitWoe from Wit
Woe from Wit is Alexander Griboyedov's comedy in verse, satirizing the society of post-Napoleonic Moscow, or, as a high official in the play styled it, "a pasquinade on Moscow."The play, written in 1823 in the countryside and in Tiflis, was not passed by the censorship for the stage, and...
the character Repetilov refers to Tolstoy in a monologue, calling him a "nighttime robber and duellist" with "unclean hands", who was "exiled to Kamchatka and came back as an Aleutian
Aleutian
Aleutian may refer to:*The Aleut people, the indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands, the Pribilof Islands, the Shumagin Islands, and the far western part of the Alaska Peninsula in Alaska and of Kamchatka Krai, Russia....
". Tolstoy himself wrote corrections into one of the manuscripts. He modified the phrase "he was exiled to Kamchatka" to "the devil took him to Kamchatka", noting that he was never exiled, and limited the line about "unclean hands" to include "at cards", remarking that "for a true likeness these corrections are necessary, so that people will not think, that [this character] steals snuffboxes from tables". Tolstoy also accused Griboyedov of implying that he was a bribetaker. When Griboyedov objected, saying "but you do play unfairly, after all", Tolstoy responded, "Only that? Well you should have written it that way."
Tolstoy loved to dwell on this line, bringing it up on many occasions. At one of the first performances of Woe from Wit, Tolstoy, who was seated in the audience, stood up after Repetilov's speech and shouted, "I never took bribes, because I never served [in the government]!", a quip that was greeted with applause.
English
- Robinson, Harlow. "Six Centuries of Tolstoys". Review of Twenty-Four Generations of Russian History, 1353-1983, by Nikolai Tolstoy. New York Times Book Review, November 6, 1983.
- Tolstoy, Il'ia L'vovich. Reminiscences of Tolstoy. Translated by George Calderon. Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia Library, 1997. http://www.netLibrary.com/urlapi.asp?action=summary&v=1&bookid=2011192.
- Tolstoy, Nikolai. The Tolstoys : Twenty-Four Generations of Russian history, 1353-1983. London: H. Hamilton, 1983.
Russian
- Bondi, Sergei Mikhailovich, Chernoviki Pushkina, Moscow: Prosveschchenie, 1971.
- Lotman, Yuri MikhailovichYuri LotmanYuri Mikhailovich Lotman – a prominent Soviet literary scholar, semiotician, and cultural historian. Member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences...
, Besedy o russkoi kul'ture : byt i traditsii russkogo dvorianstva XVIII-nachalo XIX veka. Saint Petersburg: Iskusstvo-SPB, 1994. - Polikovskii, Aleksei. Graf Bezbrezhnyi: dve zhizni grafa Fedora Ivanovicha Tolstogo-Amerikantsa. Moscow: Minuvshee, 2006.
- Tolstoy, Sergei Lvovich, Fiodor Tolstoi-Amerikanets. http://vivovoco.rsl.ru/VV/PAPERS/ECCE/CRAZY.HTM