Personality and worldview of Leo Tolstoy. Philosophical and religious views of Tolstoy. He moves to the positions of the patriarchal peasantry and brings down criticism on the state system. Rejection of the state, church, property
He was hostile not only to the highest tsarist bureaucracy, but also to all political activity of the autocratic power, which, in his opinion, was alien to the true interests of the country. He also reacted negatively to the reforms of the 60s, which he considered the fruit of ill-conceived undertakings from the top, which did not meet the needs of society. In 1861, he wrote a caustic satirical poem "You are our sovereign father ...", denying the reforms of Peter I, but in essence directed against the reforms of Alexander II. Peter "cooks gruel" from "overseas cereals" and stirs it with a "stick"; the porridge will come out “cool” and “salty”, and it will be up to the “kids”, that is, subsequent generations, to “disentangle” it. Thus, the poet nevertheless condemned the reforms of Peter, outwardly coinciding in this respect with the Slavophiles, which did not correspond to the essence of his political views. And he understood this well. In the late 60s, he wrote to Stasyulevich: “Peter 1, despite his stick, was more Russian than they (Slavophiles. - G.P.), because he was closer to the pre-Tatar period ...”
Contrary to his theory of "pure art", Tolstoy appeared in satirical poems as a tendentious poet. And most of his subsequent works were no less tendentious. The poet was aware of this contradiction between his aesthetic views and his work and tried to explain it in his own way. So, in December 1868, he wrote: “I despise every trend in literary work ... But it’s not my fault if it follows from what I wrote for the love of art that despotism is no good. So much the worse for despotism!
Such an explanation cannot, of course, be regarded as convincing. Condemnation of despotism arose in Tolstoy's works not "by itself". It followed from his completely conscious political convictions, which he repeatedly expressed in correspondence. These convictions gradually became more and more distinct and complete. And the ideological and political struggle that took place during the period of the peasant reform and the government reaction that followed it only contributed to this.
Like the Slavophiles, Tolstoy was an opponent of bourgeois relations developing in Russia and therefore also sought his social ideal in the historical past. But he did not admit that he had some special, original way of national life, which distinguishes it from the countries of the West and is based on the spontaneous moral subordination of the individual to the interests of the estate, and the estate to the interests of the whole society. Tolstoy was a supporter of the development of the individual, her freedom in the life of the team and the conscious service to the state interests. “I declare myself their (Slavophiles) enemy,” he wrote, “as soon as they attack Europeanism and when they compare their accursed community to the principle of individuality, the only principle in the bosom of which civilization in general and art in particular can develop.”
The Silver Prince appeared in print in 1862, but was conceived as early as the 1940s, apparently at the time when Tolstoy was writing his early tyrannical ballads about Shibanov and Repnin. Unlike these ballads, the writer now sought to expose the tyranny of Grozny in a broad epic plot. He showed in it not only the merry feasts of the guardsmen and the cruel executions of their victims, but also the domestic life of the tsar, as well as the life of the boyars hostile to the oprichnina, represented by princes Serebryany and Morozov, their personal clashes with the guardsmen and the participation in these clashes of representatives of the masses speaking on side of the boyars. The novel consists of many very spectacular and entertaining scenes, but the external entertainment prevails over their internal character. Grozny and the oprichniki are one-sidedly represented as fiends, while the positive heroes are represented as knights without fear or reproach. All this made the novel tendentious, deprived it of depth of content and realism, and led to a negative attitude towards it from the critics of the progressive camp. Shchedrin wrote an ironic review of Prince Serebryany, drawing it closer to the novels of Zagoskin and Lazhechnikov.
Sections: Literature
: get acquainted with interesting facts biographies of the writer, with his religious and philosophical views, with a peculiar worldview;
Lesson type: project protection.
Equipment: projector, multimedia presentation.
During the classes
1. The word of the teacher.
(Appendix 1, Slide 1)
Today we will talk about the great Russian writer of the XIX and XX centuries - Leo Tolstoy. This lesson is the final stage of your independent study of Tolstoy's life. You worked on a project: you studied biographical material. Tell me, what did you pay more attention to: events, character, thoughts and beliefs of the writer? (Students note that they paid more attention to the views, the relationship of the writer with his environment, to the development of his character.) So, what is the best name for our lesson (and the project too): “The life of the writer L. N. Tolstoy” or “The personality of the writer L N. Tolstoy”? (Students choose the second option with the addition of “L. N. Tolstoy. The personality and worldview of the writer.”) At the initial stage of the project, I introduced you to the opinion of the writer M. Gorky, who knew Tolstoy well: “There is no person more worthy of the name of a genius, more complex, contradictory…”. From these words follows the question that we have taken for common problem project. (Slide 2) Formulate this question. (Students say: “What is the genius, complexity and inconsistency of Tolstoy's personality?) So, what is the purpose of our lesson? (To find the answer to this difficult question.) At the beginning of the project, I told you 5 interesting facts from the life of Leo Tolstoy. You decide to do research. Remember, we made a hypothesis: “If we study the literature about Leo Tolstoy, his diaries, articles, find out what is the genius and complexity of his personality, correlate his life values with our values, finally, we will better understand his heroes.” Let's see if we can verify the correctness of the hypothesis today. Each table has a performance evaluation sheet according to a 5-point system. (Slide 3) According to the criteria of internal evaluation (volume of work performed, quality of work and efficiency), you have already evaluated yourself. According to the external evaluation criteria, evaluate the group as a whole after each performance. The evaluation sheet is in front of you, once again look at the criteria (interesting material; compliance with the speech plan: question, detailed answer, conclusion; ability to communicate with the audience: fluency in the material, clear speech, a worthy answer to the question of opponents; speech time - 5 minutes). Don't forget to ask each other questions. (Slide 4) We start protecting the project. The form of defense is your speeches with a presentation. The product of the project is an album-presentation. Based on your slides, I made a single design ..., edited ... .
2. Performance of the first group.
(Slide 5) Our study began with the following fact: L.N. Tolstoy studied at Kazan University for only 2 years, did not finish it, but became the most educated person of his time, the complete academic collection of works of which is 90 volumes. How, without having a higher university education, did he become a great genius? (Slide 6) Sofya Andreevna Tolstaya, the writer's wife, once said: "Everything that he learned in life, he learned himself, with his hard work." Even at the university, L. Tolstoy realized that he was not satisfied with university knowledge. He decides to continue to study on his own, begins to keep a diary in which he makes rules for himself. (Slide 7) There are more than 40 of them, we will give a few of them: 1. What is appointed to fulfill without fail, then fulfill it, no matter what. 2. What you do, do it well. 3. Never consult a book if you forgot something, but try to remember it yourself. 4. Make your mind constantly act with all its possible power. 5. Read and think always out loud. 6. Don't be ashamed to tell people who are bothering you that they are. (Slide 8) He draws up a development program, which he intends to carry out in 2 years: 1. To study the entire course of legal sciences necessary for the final examination at the university. 2. Study practical medicine and part of the theoretical one. 3. Learn languages: French, Russian, German, English, Italian and Latin. 4. To study agriculture, both theoretical and practical. 5. Study history, geography and statistics. 6. Study mathematics, gymnasium course. 7. Write a dissertation. 8. Achieve an average degree of perfection in music and painting. 9. Get some knowledge in the natural sciences. 10. Compose essays from all the subjects that I will study. The most surprising thing is that Tolstoy carried out most of this program. The diary helped him educate himself, on its pages he argued with himself, strictly judged his way of life and denounced himself in numerous "sins". (Slide 9) Here is what we read in the diary for 1854 : “I am bad-looking, awkward, unclean, completely uneducated. I am irritable, boring for others, immodest... I am smart, but my mind has never been thoroughly tested on anything. I have neither a practical mind, nor a secular mind, nor a business mind…”. (Slide 10) He considered the task of self-education "to get rid of the three main vices: spinelessness, irritability, laziness." Of course, Tolstoy exaggerated his shortcomings, but self-criticism helped him improve. The diary was his strict teacher, a reliable friend. It should also be noted that the writer knew English, French and German perfectly, easily read Polish, Czech and Italian. He wanted to read the literature of interest to him in the original. (Slide 11) Tolstoy intensely reads Western European literature: Charles Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau - French writers, thinkers, philosophers. (Slide 12) In the diary for 1884 we read: “We need to make ourselves a reading circle: Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Laots, Buddha, Pascal, the Gospel. This is what everyone needs.” Epictetus is a Roman philosopher, Marcus Aurelius is a Roman emperor who wrote philosophical works, Lao Tzu is an ancient Chinese writer, Buddha is the founder of Buddhism. This means that Tolstoy was interested in philosophy and religious literature, he was a very well-read person. The writer constantly expanded his horizons. (Slide 13) He planned to make his first trip abroad in 1857: he went to Western Europe, visits France, visited the Louvre, the National Library, the French Academy, listened to a number of lectures at the Sorbonne. (Slide 14) He also visits Germany, where he meets the German writer Auerbach. . In addition, he also met with the German teacher Diesterweg. In 1860 he traveled abroad for the second time. Tolstoy calls this trip "a journey through the schools of Europe." He visited a huge number of educational institutions in order to find out how teaching was done in the West. He opened an experimental school in Yasnaya Polyana. The most important thing in education, in his opinion, is the observance of the conditions of freedom, education and teaching on the basis of religious and moral teachings. He himself became a teacher for peasant children. So, Leo Tolstoy became a great man of his time thanks to his willpower, exactingness towards himself, thanks to his desire for self-improvement. (Slide 15)
Question of opponents : What is the essence of moral self-improvement?
3. Performance of the second group.
(Slide 16) L. Tolstoy lived a long life - 82 years. For comparison, we looked at the years of life of other great writers. (Slide 17) For example, F. Tyutchev lived for 69 years, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin - 63 years, M. Gorky - 68 years, N. A. Nekrasov - 56 years, A.A. Fet - 72 years old, F.M. Dostoevsky - 59 years old. We wondered what the secret of Tolstoy's longevity was. L.N. Tolstoy went in for sports all his life, he ate right. Over the years, the writer felt more and more clearly that the possibilities of spiritual expression are associated with physical strength, health. Tolstoy considered a strictly measured way of life to be the primary condition for the productivity of labor. He created a daily routine that he followed all his life. He divided the whole day into four parts, calling them “my four teams”. (Slide 18) We show it schematically as follows: 15% of the time is spent on sports, 10% on physical labor, 13% on mental labor, 29% on communication with people, and 33% is left for sleep. After studying his diaries, we compiled Tolstoy's health code. (Slide 19) These are sports, physical labor, unity with nature, proper nutrition, rejection of bad habits. (Slide 20) The writer began his day with sports. He practiced gymnastics diligently every morning, later writing in his diary that gymnastics was "necessary for the development of all faculties." (Slide 21) For himself, Tolstoy compiled a list of twenty mandatory physical exercises and noted the following rules for their implementation:
- Stop as soon as you feel a little tired;
- Having done some exercise, do not start a new one until the breath returns to its normal state;
- Try to do the same number of movements the next day as the day before, if not more.
Later, he sought to develop a habit of gymnastics in his children. L. N. Tolstoy loved to swim and swam well. (Slide 22) He was an excellent rider, engaged in horse riding. He loved horses, knew a lot about them. Tolstoy loved to ride a bicycle and play chess. (Slide 23) An important part of his day is physical labor. Although Tolstoy was of noble origin, he liked to do peasant work. He himself plowed the field and wrote about it in his diary dated June 20, 1889: “I got up at six and went to plow. Very nice". (Slide 24) Pursuing self-improvement, Tolstoy freed himself from a bad habit: he stopped smoking. He also refused to drink wine. (Slide 25) After intense literary work, the writer, in any weather, even in thirty-degree frost, went for a walk that lasted at least three hours, more than once he walked from Yasnaya Polyana to Tula, which is 14 kilometers. Tolstoy liked to walk around Yasnaya Polyana. He took refuge in the thicket of Yasnaya Polyana and took air baths. (Slide 26) Tolstoy ate right all his life, he was a staunch vegetarian, but not strict. He excluded meat and fish from his diet, but ate butter, drank milk, kefir, and was very fond of eggs. Treating death calmly and in old age preparing himself for it, Tolstoy did not cease to rejoice at each new day of labor. Our group came to the conclusion: we think that one of the secrets of L. Tolstoy's longevity is that the writer led a healthy lifestyle. For us young people, this is a good example to follow. You need to play sports, physical labor and monitor your diet.
Opponent question: Can L. Tolstoy be called a harmoniously developed personality? Why?
4. Performance of the third group.
(Slide 27) We learned such a fact from Tolstoy's life: at 82, at night he left his home, which he cherished very much, from his family, whom he loved very much. Why? To answer this question, we set ourselves the goal of studying the relationship between father and children, husband and wife. Therefore, we have decided on the following topic: "Tolstoy and his family." (Slide 28) Lev Nikolayevich married in the fall of 1862 to the daughter of a court doctor, Sofya Andreevna Bers. The first family joys created in Tolstoy a sense of newfound peace and great happiness. He loves his wife and gladly surrenders to this feeling. “Family happiness absorbs everything in me,” he writes in his diary dated January 5, 1863, “no one has ever had and will not have this, and I realized it.” Tolstoy's friend I.P. Borisov in 1862 remarked: “She is a beauty all in herself. Healthy smart, simple and uncomplicated - it should also have a lot of character, i.e. her will is at her command. He is in love with her…” (Slide 29) In the person of his wife, he found an assistant in all matters, practical and literary - in the absence of a secretary, she several times rewrote her husband's drafts. (Slide 30) The couple had a large family - 13 children. Some of them died in infancy. Varvara did not live to be a year old, Peter and Nikolai lived only one year, Alexey - 5 years. Tolstoy's beloved daughter Alexandra lived the longest, she died in 1979 in America. Daughter Maria died in 1906. The eldest daughter Tatyana was the keeper of the estate in Yasnaya Polyana. Son Michael wrote memoirs "My parents". Lev and Ilya became writers, Sergei became a composer, and there were also sons Andrei and Ivan. (Slide 31) L.N. Tolstoy was a supporter of family education and education of children. He considered the upbringing of children to be one of the most important tasks and responsibilities of parents. (Slide 32) Alexander's daughter respected and loved her father: “... my father was great in that all his life, from childhood, he strove for good, and when he made mistakes, erred and fell, he never made excuses, did not lie either to himself or to people, but got up and moved on. These main features of him - humility and modesty, dissatisfaction with himself - and prompted him to always rise higher and higher. Tolstoy especially loved his daughters: “I feel the sin of my exclusive affection for my daughters” (diary dated 08.24.1910.). (Slide 33) At the turn of the 1880s, Tolstoy experienced a sharp ideological and spiritual turning point. He is tormented by his own well-being at a time when poverty, lies, injustice reign around him. (Slide 34) From day to day, his discord with his family deepens, especially with his sons and wife, who do not accept his new worldview and oppose its implementation. He came to the denial of property, renounced ownership of real estate, estates, land, and literary royalties, but at the same time, not wanting to harm his loved ones, he transferred the rights to them and income from essays written before 1881 to the family. In the first will of 1909, he wrote that all his literary works, which were written and printed since January 1, 1881, would not constitute anyone's private property, but would be in the public domain. This decision did not satisfy his wife and children. Quarrels, disagreements, reproaches began. Slowly, gradually, the spiritual and family drama grew. Here is what Tolstoy writes in his diary: “Sons, it is very hard…” (July 29, 1910); “It is just as alien to sons” (07/30/1910); “It's getting harder and harder with Sofia Andreevna. Not love, but a demand for love, close to hatred and turning into hatred” (August 28, 1910). Sofya Andreevna and her sons demanded the destruction of the will. Then Tolstoy wrote his second will in 1910. He wrote that he bequeathed all his literary works ever written to his daughter Alexandra Lvovna. He agreed with his daughter that after his death she would give all his writings to the state, they would not be anyone's private property. His daughter was completely supportive. The existence of this will, the wife soon guessed and began to search with painful persistence. (Slide 35) After painful reflections, Tolstoy decided to secretly leave Yasnaya Polyana at night: “They are tearing me apart. Sometimes I think: get away from everyone” (09/24/1910). So, our group came to the conclusion: one of the reasons for Tolstoy's departure from home was family strife and disputes regarding the will. The writer ardently wished for peace in the family, but the latest diary entries indicate that he began to live unbearably.
Opponent question: L. Tolstoy deprived his family of the opportunity to receive further income from the publication of his works. How do you feel about his decision?
5. Performance of the fourth group.
(Slide 36) We were faced with a problematic question: why L.N. Tolstoy, a nobleman, count, who had a large estate in Yasnaya Polyana and extensive land, in the photographs is dressed very simply, like a peasant: in a linen shirt, sometimes barefoot. What were the relations between Leo Tolstoy and the noble class? What attracted him to peasant life? The theme of our speech: “Tolstoy and the nobility. Tolstoy and the People. LN Tolstoy was born and brought up in a noble family. (Slide 37) It intersected the continuation of two noble noble families: from the side of the father - Counts Tolstoy, who received the title during the time of Peter the Great; from the side of the mother - the princes Volkonsky, who led their family even "from Rurik". (Slide 38) After the division of property, Tolstoy got the Yasnaya Polyana family estate and about 1,600 hectares of land with 330 souls. It would seem that he is provided with a calm, comfortable existence. But soon he began to be weary of his condition. He was ashamed to live in luxury, when the people around him were poor, starving and suffering. Lev Nikolaevich believed that you need to make your life easier and remake yourself. In his diary (1847), Tolstoy made the following simple conclusion: "... use the work of others as little as possible and work as much as possible yourself." (Slide 39) He begins to clean his own room, chop wood, sew boots, carry water and plow the land. (Slide 40) He arranged his office very simply and modestly. The spiritual turning point was reflected in his articles, stories, plays, which are united by one hysterical note: “... You can’t live like that, you can’t live like that, you can’t!”. (Slide 41) Tolstoy defiantly breaks with his class. In his Confession, Tolstoy writes: “I renounced the life of our circle, recognizing that this is not life, that the conditions of excess in which we live make it impossible for us to understand life, and that in order to understand life, I must understand the life of a simple working people, the one who makes life ... ". The upper classes of society, writes Tolstoy, are very concerned about somehow feeding the people. To do this, they continuously sit, assemble committees, buy bread and distribute it among the population. Meanwhile, there is a very simple remedy for feeding the people: "There is only one remedy: do not overeat it." (Slide 42) Local peasants often came to Tolstoy to talk about their needs. The railroad or the mine does not pay the worker for injury, the zemstvo chief delivered an unjust verdict, the neighboring landowner does not lease the land they need to the peasants - with all this people went to Tolstoy. In 1891, famine overtook Russia. Tolstoy could not but respond to misfortune: he organized canteens to feed the starving, wrote articles about the horrors of hunger. Proximity to the people enriches, fills with content its spiritual life. (Slide 43) Helping the people, Tolstoy opened a school in Yasnaya Polyana, where he sometimes taught himself. He even wrote instructive tales and stories for children. (Slide 44) (Slide 45) Towards the end of his life, Tolstoy decided to leave everyone to live with a familiar peasant and spend the rest of his life in a peasant hut. He believed that ordinary people live like God, because they work, know how to endure, humble themselves and be merciful. The common people know the meaning of life. So, Tolstoy broke with his class - the nobility, because he did not see meaning, truth in a luxurious, well-fed life. He did not imagine personal happiness when poverty, misery and injustice reigned around him. His ideal was life in the peasant world according to the laws of love and kindness.
Opponent question: How do you assess Tolstoy's decision to get away from luxury and wealth today?
6. Performance of the fifth group.
(Slide 46) We saw a photograph of the grave of L. Tolstoy in Yasnaya Polyana and thought about the question: why is there no cross on the grave? This is how the topic of our speech was defined: L. N. Tolstoy and God, L. N. Tolstoy and religion, L. N. Tolstoy and the Church. (Slide 47) While working on the project, we studied Tolstoy's diaries, his articles “What is my faith?”, “The Kingdom of God is within you”, “Confession”, Wikipedia. First of all, it must be said that L. N. Tolstoy, like most representatives of the educated society of his time, belonged by birth and baptism to the Orthodox Church. In his youth and youth he was indifferent to religious issues, but later he began to think about what God is. (Slide 48) Here is an excerpt from his diary for 1860: “What is a god, imagined so clearly that one can ask him to communicate with him? If I imagine such a thing, then he loses all grandeur for me. A God that can be asked and served is the expression of the weakness of the mind. That is why he is a god, that I cannot imagine his whole being. He began to listen to the texts of prayers, in the speeches of religious ministers, watched the services, studied the Bible and the Gospel. Tolstoy claimed that in the Gospel he was most “touched and touched” by that teaching of Christ, “in which love, humility, humiliation, self-sacrifice and retribution with good for evil are preached.” (Slide 49) Tolstoy singled out the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel as the essence of the law of Christ. It was the law of non-resistance to evil by violence, delivering humanity from its own evil: do good in response to evil, and evil will be eradicated. But he remarked: "... what seemed to me the most important thing in the teaching of Christ is not recognized by the Church as the most important." Tolstoy wrote that he was pushed away from the church by her approval of persecutions, executions, wars, and her rejection of other religions. (Slide 50) L. Tolstoy had conversations with priests and monks, went to the elders in Optina Pustyn (this is a well-known monastery of the Russian Orthodox Church), read theological treatises. At the same time, he kept an eye on the schismatics and talked with the sectarians. And this is what he writes in his “Confession”: “I listened to the conversation of an illiterate peasant wanderer about God, about faith, about life, about salvation, and the knowledge of faith was revealed to me. I approached the people, listening to their judgments about life, about faith, and I understood the truth more and more. But as soon as I met with learned believers or took their books, some kind of self-doubt, discontent arose in me, and I felt that the more I delve into their speech, the more I move away from the truth and go to the abyss. Turning away from teaching Orthodox Church the time for Leo Tolstoy was the second half of 1879. (Slide 51) In the 1880s, he took the position of an unambiguously critical attitude towards church doctrine, the clergy, and official churchness. He believed that the Orthodox Church deceives and robs the people. L. N. Tolstoy in the official religion rejects the dogmas of the organized church, public worship, does not recognize the church hierarchy, the clergy, afterlife and the redemption of souls, denies the divine origin of Jesus Christ, fasts, sacraments, accepts only the commandments of the Savior from the four Gospels, believes that "a Christian should pray for enemies, and not against them." He had his own understanding of Christianity and the Gospel, and the church, in his opinion, distorted the teachings of Christ. (Slide 52) In February 1901, the Synod finally inclined to the idea of publicly condemning Tolstoy and declaring him outside the church: “ known to the world the writer, Orthodox by his baptism and upbringing, Count Tolstoy boldly rebelled against the Lord and His Christ and His holy property, clearly before everyone renounced the Mother who nurtured and raised him, the Orthodox Church ... Therefore, the Church does not consider him its member until he repents and does not restore his communion with her…”. (Slide 53) You see a fragment of a wall painting from the church with. Tazov of the Kursk province "Leo Tolstoy in hell".(Slide 54) In his “Response to the Synod,” Leo Tolstoy confirmed his break with the church: “The fact that I renounced the church that calls itself Orthodox is absolutely right. But I renounced it not because I rebelled against the Lord, but on the contrary, only because I wanted to serve him with all the strength of my soul. All his life Leo Tolstoy searched for his understanding of God, thought about whether he exists, doubted him. This is evidenced by excerpts from the diaries. (Slide 55) 1906 “Is there a god? Don't know. I know that there is a law of my spiritual being. The source, the cause of this law, I call God. 1909 “God is love, that's right. He is everything to me, and the explanation and purpose of my life. So why is there no cross on Tolstoy's grave? We will find the answer to this question in the diary of 1909: “I repeat in this case that I also ask you to bury me without the so-called worship, and bury the body in the ground so that it does not stink.” Tolstoy was always trying to reach some pure truth. And in the Russian Orthodox Church of that time, he did not find this pure truth for himself. His life is not a story of struggle with the Church and not a final choice. This is the story of the complex inner searches of a sincere, creative person.
7. Summing up.
So, we are convinced that L. N. Tolstoy is a brilliant, complex, controversial personality.
The writer had a difficult relationship with the nobility, with his family, with God, with himself. He often doubted his views and beliefs.
The personality of L. Tolstoy is characterized by exactingness to himself, the desire to know the world, restlessness in life and a constant search for truth.
(Slide 57) I would like to end our conversation with the words of Leo Tolstoy, which would express the essence of his personality. Read them.
“In order to live honestly, one must tear, get confused, fight, make mistakes, start and quit, and start again and quit again, and always fight and lose. And peace is spiritual meanness.”
“Every person is a diamond that can purify and not purify itself. To the extent that it is purified, eternal light shines through it. Therefore, the business of man is not to try to shine, but to try to purify himself.”
What will you choose and why?
8. Reflection.
- Tell me, are you convinced of the correctness of the hypothesis? Have you answered the main question of the project?
What was the most difficult part of preparing the project?
- Undoubtedly, Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy is a great personality from whom one can learn a lot. What do you want to study?
List of used literature and catalog of Internet resources.
- Azarova N., Gorokhov M
Tolstoy was a representative of the highest noble circle of Russia, a count. Until the 80s, he led a completely aristocratic lifestyle, believing that a person of his circle should strive to increase wealth. That is how he at first raised his wife of semi-noble origin S.A. Bers, who was 16 years younger than her husband. At the same time, he always despised immoral people and actively sympathized with disenfranchised peasants. So, back in the late 50s, he opened a school for peasant children in Yasnaya Polyana and taught there himself, helping those in need financially.
The entire ideological position of the writer, both before and after the turning point in his mind that occurred in the 80s, was based on the denial of violence, "non-resistance to evil by violence." However, it is well known that Tolstoy always resolutely exposed evil both in his actions and in his articles and works. He believed that the world would change for the better when each person engaged in self-improvement based on doing good to other people. Therefore, it would be more correct to call Tolstoy's formula "resisting evil with good."
The essence of the turning point in Tolstoy's worldview in the 1980s lies in the rejection of lordly life and an attempt to switch to the positions and way of life of the patriarchal Russian peasantry. The writer considered various kinds of self-restraint up to vegetarianism, simplification of life, recognition of the need for everyday physical labor, including agricultural work, assistance to the poor and the almost complete renunciation of property as necessary attributes of such changes. The last circumstance hit the large family most painfully, to which he himself had instilled completely different habits in past times.
Towards the end of the century, Tolstoy delved more and more deeply into the essence of the Gospel and, seeing the huge gap between the teachings of Christ and official Orthodoxy, renounced the official church. His position was the need for every Christian to seek God in himself, and not in the official church. In addition, Buddhist philosophy and religion influenced his views at this time.
Being himself a thinker, philosopher, rationalist, prone to all sorts of schemes and classifications, he at the same time believed that a person should live exclusively with the heart, and not with the mind. That is why his favorite characters are always looking for naturalness, live by feelings, not by reason, or come to this as a result of long spiritual searches.
A person, according to L. Tolstoy, must constantly change, develop, passing through mistakes, new searches and overcomings. And he considered complacency "spiritual meanness."
The literary discovery of L. Tolstoy is a deep and detailed analysis of the thoughts and feelings of the hero, the motives of his actions. The internal struggle in the human soul has become for the writer the main subject of artistic research. N.G. Chernyshevsky called this artistic method discovered by Tolstoy “dialectic of the soul”.
A series of Lenin's articles on Tolstoy is an example of the concrete application of the principles of dialectics, the theory of reflection to the analysis of artistic creativity, the identification of its ideological and aesthetic originality. Calling Tolstoy “the mirror of the Russian revolution,” Lenin emphasized the social class conditionality of the process of reflecting reality in art: “Tolstoy’s ideas are a mirror of the weakness, shortcomings of our peasant uprising, a reflection of the softness of the patriarchal village ...” (vol. 17, p. 212 ). Speaking against both dispassionate objectivism and vulgar sociologism in the understanding of artistic creativity, Lenin showed that the reflection of reality in works of art (“Tolstoy embodied in striking relief ... the features of the historical originality of the entire first Russian revolution ...” - vol. 20, pp. 20) is inseparable from the subjective attitude of the artist towards it, giving an aesthetic assessment of what is depicted from the standpoint of certain social ideals. According to the logic of Lenin's thought, Tolstoy's "hot, passionate, often mercilessly sharp protest" against the police state and the church, "denunciation of capitalism" (vol. 20, pp. 20-21) is a necessary condition for the artistic value and social significance of his work. According to Lenin, the artistic generalization of the essential, the regular, is actually carried out through the individual, the singular: “... the whole nail is in an individual setting, in the analysis of the characters and psyche of these types” (vol. 49, p. 57). Thus, the process of artistic creativity was considered by Lenin as a dialectical unity of objective and subjective, cognition and evaluation, individual and general, social and individual.
V. I. Lenin about Tolstoy. In several articles, V. I. Lenin gave a brilliant description of the worldview of L. N. Tolstoy, revealed his significance as a writer.
Lenin wrote that “the old patriarchal Russia after 1861 began to rapidly collapse under the influence of world capitalism. The peasants were starving, dying out, ruined like never before, and fled to the cities, leaving the land behind. Railroads, factories and factories were intensively built, thanks to the "cheap labor" of the ruined peasants. Large financial capital, large-scale trade and industry developed in Russia. This quick, hard, sharp breaking of all the old “foundations” of old Russia was reflected in the works of Tolstoy the artist, in the views of Tolstoy the thinker ”(V. I. Lenin, Poln. sobr. soch., vol. 20, p. 39).
L. N. Tolstoy, as V. I. Lenin showed, was a spokesman for the views and moods patriarchal peasantry post-reform Russia, which was attacked by a new, unprecedented, incomprehensible enemy - capital, which brought the peasants many all sorts of disasters.
Tolstoy, having a negative attitude towards the revolutionary change in the social system, preached non-resistance to evil by violence and dreamed of the gradual peaceful self-improvement of people.
Noting the great contradictions in Tolstoy's worldview, V. I. Lenin showed that these contradictions were not accidental, but an expression of the contradictory conditions in which Russian life was placed in the last third of the 19th century. Noting that Tolstoy's critical speeches played a big role in exposing the dark sides of Russian reality, that his wonderful works constituted a new era in the artistic development of mankind, he wrote that Tolstoy's social views were generally utopian and reactionary in content. At the same time, V. I. Lenin noted that in Tolstoy's literary heritage "there is something that has not receded into the past, but belongs to the future."
13. PEOPLE OF LITERATURE- the connection of literature with the people, the conditionality of literary works by the life, ideas, feelings and aspirations of the masses, the expression in literature of their interests and psychology. The idea of the nationality of literature is largely determined by the content that is put into the concept of "people" (for example, "people" is not limited to the peasantry or only to the oppressed strata of society).
Firstly, nationality is a measure of the interpenetration of literature and folklore. Literature borrows plots, images and motifs from folk works (for example, fairy tales by A.S. Pushkin using the material of Russian folk tales). Sometimes it happens and vice versa - songs on verses in Russian. poets become popular (for example, the song "Peddlers", based on an excerpt from the poem by N. A. Nekrasov"To whom in Rus' it is good to live"). Secondly, nationality is a measure of the author's penetration into the people's consciousness, the adequacy of his portrayal of representatives of the people. So, for example, the tetralogy of F.A. Abramova"Pryasliny", which depicts the life of the northern village during the Great Patriotic War and after it. In works that are unpopular from this point of view, ordinary people are depicted unnaturally, far-fetched (such, for example, were many "ceremonial" novels of socialist realism, depicting "varnished" reality). Thirdly, the term “nationality” sometimes denotes the accessibility of literature to people, its understandability for an unprepared reader. Folk literature in this case is opposed to elite literature intended for a narrow circle. In contemporary literature, especially in postmodernism a work can perform two functions (for example, the novel "The Name of the Rose" by W. Eco for the average reader, it is an exciting detective story, but this novel is also addressed to the philologist, because it contains many allusions and reminiscences from other works). The philosophical concept of nationality in art is formed in the works of J. Vico and J.-J. Rousseau, then I. G. Herder. In the beginning. 19th century Herder published the collection "Voices of the Nations in Songs", which, along with folk songs, included author's poems. Thus, Herder wanted to show the unity of literature and the manifestation of the “folk spirit” in it. German writers and scientists (A. and F. Schlegel, A. von Arnim, C. Brentano, J. and V. Grimm) studied folk culture, collected, processed and published folklore works. They created a "mythological school", believing that the basis of all art is myth from which folklore develops. In literature romanticism one of the main principles was an interest in the history of his people and his art, orientation to his spirit and poetics. In Russia, at the beginning 19th century articles about nationality were written by O. M. Somov, P. A. Vyazemsky. The discussion unfolded in the 1840s, when nationality turned out to be one of the central issues in the dispute between Slavophiles and Westernizers. If for the Slavophils nationality consisted in fidelity to the spirit of Russian folklore and life, then Westerners saw it primarily in a realistic depiction of reality. In the 1860s The national nature of literature was associated with the depiction of the oppressed state of the people, their dependence and susceptibility to arbitrariness. Soviet literature considered nationality to be one of the main criteria for evaluating a work, understanding it as a true image of the people and accessibility to the people, but the desire to hush up shortcomings led to the opposite - many works depicted the people extremely falsely.
14. PARTY LITERATURE- such a manifestation of its class character, which is associated with a high level of development of the political and ideological struggle, with the advancement to the historical arena of parties that defend the interests of opposing social forces.
Party Literature“It is impossible to live in society and be free from society.” These words of V. I. Lenin give the key to understanding the question of the partisanship of literature. Bourgeois critics and writers at one time created theories according to which art is independent of social life: a poet, novelist, playwright allegedly create their works, like Pushkin's chronicler Pimen, "listening to good and evil indifferently." The thesis was put forward about "pure art", allegedly free from any kind of social predilections and sympathies. But this was an illusion that could only mask, hide the artist's real connection with social development.
V. I. Lenin emphasizes that the partisanship of literature is organically connected with our entire philosophy. The principle of party membership was most widely substantiated by V. I. Lenin in his work “Party Organization and Party Literature” in 1905. Her main thesis was expressed very clearly. Literary work must become an integral part of the general proletarian cause. A grandiose class struggle is unfolding in Russia. The country is heading for a revolution. And every artist faces a burning and acute question: with whom is he - with the forces of reaction, the old world, or with the people, with the working class fighting for a brighter future? V. I. Lenin exposes the bourgeois slogan of "non-party" art and counterposes it with art that is openly connected with the revolutionary people.
Thus, the partisanship of literature is the internal ideological political aspiration of creativity. Under our conditions, this is above all an active defense of the ideals of communism, it is an organic connection with the interests of the people, with their struggle to build a new world, on the road to communism.
The literature of socialist realism does not simply reproduce those other aspects of reality. Communist party membership presupposes an active, passionate, interested intervention of the writer in life. In this sense
Literature actively and ardently helps to educate the new man of the revolutionary epoch.
According to the monograph by E.A. Maimin “Leo Tolstoy. The Way of the Writer. Tolstoy responded in his own way to the general democratic demands for the creation of a public novel in Russia. A novel based on new beginnings, with an appeal to the life of the people and to the hero of the people.
From the very beginning of the novel, Tolstoy demonstrates a blatant inconsistency, a blatant lie of life: criminals judge their victims!
Tolstoy's object image is opposed by the shadow one: the image of a character according to those features that characterize the character not so much individually as class. The "shadow" principle of characterization in the novel "Resurrection" is a means of ultimate clarification of social truths, a clarification that is so necessary for society in times of spiritual and revolutionary crises.
According to the article by M.M. Bakhtin "Foreword" (1930). "Resurrection" by L. Tolstoy. More than ten years have passed since the end of Anna Karenina (1877), when Tolstoy began work on his last novel - "Resurrection"(1890). In this decade, the so-called "crisis of Tolstoy" took place, the crisis of his life, ideology and artistic creativity.
During the years of intense struggle for the social reorientation of artistic creativity, the idea of "Resurrection" was born, and slowly, difficultly, with crises, work on this last novel dragged on.
Resurrection must be defined as a socio-ideological novel. At the heart of such a novel is an ideological thesis about the desired and proper social structure. From the point of view of this thesis, a fundamental criticism of all existing social relations and forms is given. This critique of reality is accompanied or interrupted by direct proofs of the theses in the form of abstract reasoning or preaching, and sometimes by attempts to depict a utopian ideal.
The novel "Resurrection" is composed of three elements: 1) a fundamental criticism of all existing social relations; the moral resurrection of Nekhlyudov and Katyusha Maslova and 3) the abstract development of the socio-moral and religious views of the author.
The question of personal participation in evil obscures the objectively existing evil itself, makes it something subordinate, something secondary in comparison with the tasks of personal repentance and personal improvement. Objective reality with its objective tasks of repentance, purification, personal moral resurrection. From the very beginning, a fatal substitution of the question took place: instead of the question of objective evil, the question of personal participation in it was posed.
This last question is answered by the ideology of the novel. Therefore, it must inevitably lie on the subjective plane of internal affairs: this is predetermined by the very posing of the question. Ideology points out a subjective way out for the repentant exploiter, calls those who have not repented to repentance. The question of exploited did not arise. They feel good, they are not guilty of anything, they have to be looked at with envy.
The objective evil of the estate-class system, depicted with such amazing force by Tolstoy, is framed in the novel by the subjective outlook of a representative of a departing class, seeking a way out on the paths of internal affairs, i.e. objective historical inaction.
The artistic accents of this image are much more energetic, stronger and more revolutionary than those tones of repentance, forgiveness, non-resistance that color the internal affairs of the characters and the abstract ideological theses of the novel. The artistically critical moment is the main value of the novel.
