Tolstoy and А.S. Pushkin: Comparative history of private book collections

A.N. Polosina

The State Memorial and Natural Preserve “Museum Estate of Leo Tolstoy “Yasnaya Polyana”, Yasnaya Polyana, 301214 Russia

E-mail: alispopova13@yandex.ru

Received November 26, 2017

Full text PDF

Abstract

This paper considers the origin, formation, and destiny of the book collection in Yasnaya Polyana. Its history begins from the time of Nikolai Semenovich Volkonskii (1753–1821). A great contribution to this book collection was made not only by his grandson, Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy (1828–1910), but also by the generation of contemporaries of the writer. Special attention has been paid to the works of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin (1799–1837) and the literature about him. The work is based on the receptive analysis of the source material, because this method allows to involve numerous memories. In particular, we have speculated about L.N. Tolstoy's attitude to A.S. Pushkin's works, as well as about the role played by the “sun of Russian poetry” in his literary work and in the process of educating children based on the memoirs of the following persons: L.N. Tolstoy's sons, Sergey (1866–1933) and Ilya (1866–1933); his family doctor, Dushan Petrovich Makovitskii (1866–1921); Grigory Petrovich Danilevskii (1829–1890), who was the first to develop an idea of the library in Yasnaya Polyana; Alexey Evgen'evich Gruzinskii (1858–1930), a professor of Moscow University, who studied the state of books in 1912 with the permission of Sofia Tolstoya (1844–1919), the widow of the writer et al.

Keywords: L.N. Tolstoy, library Yasnaya Polyana, G.P. Danilevskii, D.P. Makovitskii, А.Е. Gruzinskii, S.А. Tolstaya, S.L. Tolstoy, I.L. Tolstoy, A.S. Pushkin

References

1. Nodier Ch. From “Notes on One Small Library”. In: Chitaite Starye Knigi [Read Old Books]. Vol. 2. Moscow, Kniga, 1989, pp. 6–58. (In Russian)
2. Osorgin M.A. Pushkin as a bibliophile. Moskovskii Zhurnal, 1999, no. 6. Available at: http://ruskline.ru/monitoring_smi/1999/06/01/pushkin-kinolyub. (In Russian)
3. Alekseeva G.V. From the history of the book collection (scientific and bibliographical des­cription of books by foreign authors) in Yasnaya Polyana. In: Istochniki po istorii russkoi usadebnoi kul'tury [Sources on Russian Manor House Culture History]. Moscow, Yasnaya Polyana, 1997. Available at: http://oiru.archeologia.ru/biblio050.htm. (In Russian)
4. Pozel'skaya A. L.N. Tolstoy's private collection of books. Istoriya, kul'tura i traditsii Ryazanskogo kraya, 2008, Oct. 31. Available at: http://www.history-ryazan.ru/node/3387. (In Russian)
5. Эйхенбаум Б. Eikhenbaum B. Belinsky and Leo Tolstoy's heritage. Available at: http://tolstoy-lit.ru/ tolstoy/public/ejhenbaum-nasledie-belinskogo-i-tolstoj.htm. (In Russian)
6. Polosina A.N. Russian translations of “The Coffee-House of Surat” by Bernardin de St. Pierre (N.M. Karamzin and L.N. Tolstoy). L.N. Tolstoi i A.S. Pushkin: soprichastnost' idei, obrazov, sudeb: Materialy XXV Mezhdunar. Tolstovskikh chtenii [L.N. Tolstoy and A.S. Pushkin: Interconnectedness of Ideas, Images, and Fortunes: Proc. XXV Int. Tolstoyan Lectures]. Tula, Izd. ТTUl. Gos. Peadgog. Univ. im. L.N. Tolstogo, 1999, pp. 270–282. (In Russian)

For citation: Polosina A.N. L.N. Tolstoy and А.S. Pushkin: Comparative history of private book collections. Uchenye Zapiski Kazanskogo Universiteta. Seriya Gumanitarnye Nauki, 2018, vol. 160, no. 1, pp. 17–28. (In Russian)

The content is available under the license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.