What happened to Leo Tolstoy’s 13 children?

Alexandra Guzeva

Jan 19 2024

What happened to Leo Tolstoy’s 13 children? — L.N.Tolstoy State Museum/russiainphoto.ru

He was very prolific and not only as a writer. He had 13 children, although five died in infancy or at a young age. The others helped their great father and acted as his assistants and secretaries. But, how did the famous name affect them later in life?

Tolstoy's wife Sofia Andreyevna was 13 years younger than her great husband and devoted virtually her entire life to him – she was his assistant and private secretary, personally ran the entire household and, on top of all that, gave birth to 13 children.

There were various rumors that Tolstoy was a domestic tyrant and forced his wife to have more children even when doctors advised against it. But marital fidelity, the family and Christian faith were the most important values in life for him, so his spouse obediently followed his "commandments".

So, what became of the great writer's children?

1. Sergei (1863-1947)

"Seryozha (diminutive of Sergei) is intelligent, has a mathematical mind and is sensitive to art," is what Leo Tolstoy himself wrote about his eldest son when he was a child.

Sergei had broad interests. He graduated from the Department of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University and was a big fan of science (in this, he differed from his father). At the same time, he was also a musician, a composer (he wrote music under the pseudonym ‘S. Brodinsky’) and even a professor at the Moscow Conservatory. In addition, he was an ethnographer, went on folklore expeditions and studied European and Indian music.

"While not coinciding in his views with his father, Sergei, nevertheless, was always sympathetic towards him and personally accompanied the Doukhobors to Canada, to the resettlement of whom his father was passionately committed, having donated the royalties from 'Resurrection' to their cause. Sergei Lvovich was the only one of the brothers to fully support his father during his "departure". And, after his death, he did everything possible to preserve Yasnaya Polyana [Leo Tolstoy's estate] as a museum," Pavel Basinsky, a Tolstoy expert, says about Sergei Lvovich.

Additionally, Sergei was the only one of Tolstoy's children who stayed in Russia after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. He was married twice. His first wife left him, completely unexpectedly, right after their honeymoon. His son – also Sergei – was brought up in his maternal grandfather’s house, lived all his life in Russia and became an English teacher.

2. Tatyana (1864-1950)

"Everyone says she's like Sonya [diminutive of Sofia, Tolstoy's wife] and I believe it," Tolstoy wrote about his eldest daughter. Her childhood coincided with the happiest time in the family – Tolstoy was working on 'War and Peace' and his wife was helping him, copying drafts and editing. During that period, they had no quarrels to speak of.

Tatyana had a talent for art and graduated from the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. She was supported and advised by famous artists Nikolai Ge and Ilya Repin, who were friends of the family. But, Tatyana never achieved any serious success in painting.

The personal life of the young woman was not very successful, either. A faithful follower of the ideas of her father, she was exclusively devoted to him. In her youth, she rejected numerous suitors – according to biographers, her father eclipsed all other men for her. Tatyana only married at the age of 35 – to a 49-year-old widower and landowner named Mikhail Sukhotin. In 1905, after five stillbirths, she finally gave birth to her only child, a daughter.

After the death of her father and then of her husband, she became the curator of the Yasnaya Polyana estate museum and then director of the Tolstoy Museum in Moscow. In 1925, together with her daughter, she emigrated to Europe and resided in both Paris and Rome.

3. Ilya (1866-1933)

"He is big-boned, fair-skinned with rosy cheeks, radiant. He studies poorly and is always thinking about something he is told not to think about. <…> He is hot-tempered and fiery, always ready for a fight; at the same time, he is gentle and very sensitive," Tolstoy wrote about Ilya when he was little.

The life of his second son was quite turbulent. He didn't even finish school – he was more interested in hunting and women. So, it was little surprise when Ilya became the first of Tolstoy's sons to get married. He settled down on an estate that belonged to his mother, intending to become a landowner. But, the estate didn't bring in any money and, in the meantime, Ilya had as many as seven children. So, he was forced to ask his mother for money (however, she refused).

In 1916, Ilya went to the U.S. to give lectures about his father and stayed there, leaving his family behind in Russia. He spent the rest of his life "capitalizing" on his famous name: He commented on the 1917 Russian Revolution, gave lectures about the life and work of his father and wrote articles. Later, he worked in Hollywood and was a consultant on the screen adaptations of the novels 'Anna Karenina' and 'Resurrection'. In one movie, he even played Leo Tolstoy.

4. Lev (1869-1945)

All his life, Lev (Leo) Jr. strove to come out of the shadow of his famous father. He attempted to become a sculptor (and even studied with Auguste Rodin in Paris), as well as a public figure and a writer. And had Lev Tolstoy Jr. been born with a different first name and surname, he could perhaps have had a brilliant career, but he only ever remained second best.

In his literary work, he even tried to polemicize with his father – in particular, he published 'Chopin's Prelude' in response to his father's 'The Kreutzer Sonata'. The work was panned by the critics and, furthermore, Lev Lvovich was given the insulting nickname ‘Tigr Tigrovich’. In his book 'Lev in Leo's shadow', Pavel Basinsky writes that "no culture can withstand two Leo Tolstoys…".

"My son Lev had a distinctive feature in common with his father. It consisted of a permanent quest and permanent dissatisfaction. <…> It is difficult to find satisfaction on such a path, as any perfection is unattainable and permanent strife and struggle are tiring in the end," wrote his mother, Sofia Andreyevna, who understood the dramatic tension in her son's life. Lev had nine children from his first marriage – he also named one of them Lev, but the boy died at the age of two.

In 1909, Lev left his pregnant wife. After the Bolshevik Revolution, she emigrated to Europe together with the children, where Lev himself later moved. He remarried and had a son, but the marriage soon broke up. Lev spent the rest of his days living either with his adult sons or his sister Tatyana.

5. Maria (1871-1906)

"Very intelligent, but plain. She will be an enigma; she will suffer, she will seek, but will find nothing," Tolstoy wrote prophetically about his second daughter.

While still breastfeeding one-year-old Lev, Sofia Andreyevna realized that she was pregnant again. The birth of Masha (diminutive of Maria) was very difficult and Sofia almost died. Doctors advised her not to have any more children, but, as a family man and a Christian, Tolstoy categorically disagreed. That led to a serious quarrel between the spouses that almost ended in divorce.

Masha was the only one of Tolstoy's children with whom he allowed himself displays of affection, even when she had grown up. She was quick to sympathize, "served" her father and his cause and even helped the peasants of Yasnaya Polyana. Like her father, she scythed the fields and taught peasant children to read and write. She was incredibly intelligent herself and knew several languages.

But, her private life, like that of her elder sister Tatyana, was not very happy. Tolstoy personally rejected three suitors to whom Masha was attracted, considering them unworthy of his daughter. At the age of 26, she eventually married a distant relative – Nikolai Obolensky, who was totally penniless, but, nevertheless, a prince. By fateful coincidence, like her sister Tatyana, she, too, experienced several stillbirths.

And, in 1906, she died aged 35 following a sudden onset of pneumonia, practically in her father's arms… This loss was a huge blow to Tolstoy.

6. Pyotr (1872-73)

7. Nikolai (1874-75)

8. Varvara (1875-1875)

The next three children died in infancy. Pyotr lived just a year and a half and died of croup (inflammation of the larynx and trachea in infants), Nikolai did not even reach the age of one, while Varvara died just two hours after she was born.

9. Andrei (1877-1916)

Despite the death of three of her children in a row, Sofia Andreevna continued to have more. Andrei and all the subsequent children were regarded in the family as the "youngest ones". "I can't work out why I love him. To say it's because he's sincere and truthful would be untrue. He is frequently untruthful… But, I am at ease with him and like his company," Tolstoy wrote about Andrei.

Andrei was a gambler and frittered his life away. Perhaps Tolstoy recognized his youthful self in him and for this reason was so fond of him. Tolstoy liked the fact that Andrei was "genuine and did not want to appear other than the way he was".

He had two children from his first marriage (his son Ilya emigrated after the Bolshevik Revolution and became an officer in the U.S. Army).

Andrei fought in the Russo-Japanese War and, subsequently, became an official for special assignments for the governor of the city of Tula (and then ran off with his wife and had a daughter, Maria, with her). Andrei died in Petrograd in 1916 from blood poisoning.

10. Mikhail (1879-1944)

Mikhail was very musical and played the piano, violin and balalaika. He intended to be a composer, but eventually chose a military career: He became a cavalryman, participated in World War I and survived by a miracle. He then fought in the Civil War on the monarchist side. He got married and had eight children.

In 1920, he sailed by steamer from southern Russia to Turkey. Ending up in Europe, he put his musical talents to use and led a Russian music ensemble in the French resort town of Biarritz. He spent his last years in Morocco and even tried his hand at literary pursuits, writing memoirs and autobiographical stories (like many of the Tolstoy children). He died there, but, in 2007, his descendants fulfilled his last wish and had his remains reinterred at Yasnaya Polyana.

11. Alexei (1881-86)

Died aged four and sadly little is known about his short life.

12. Alexandra (1884-1979)

By the time of Sofia's next pregnancy, Tolstoy's relations with his wife were getting worse and worse. Their domestic rows and arguments had already become public knowledge (and many of Tolstoy's supporters were accusing her of hysteria). Tolstoy underwent a mental crisis and turned even more to religion. Aside from that, he wanted to rid himself of all his possessions, the royalties from his writings and to discharge his peasants – Sofia was annoyed by these "whims" of her otherwise wonderfully clever husband.

Sofia Andreyevna was horrified at finding herself pregnant with her 12th child (and, according to some accounts, she even tried to induce a miscarriage). It can be said that the daughter wasn't the most loved of children and, furthermore, Alexandra always took the side of her father in his quarrels with her mother.

She was named after Alexandra Andreyevna, Tolstoy's first cousin once removed, who was a member of the imperial court and lady-in-waiting to the empress and had close links to Alexander III. She conducted a candid correspondence with Tolstoy for many years.

Like the elder daughters, Alexandra became Tolstoy's assistant and secretary – and closest friend and confidante. She was the only person who knew of her father's plans to flee Yasnaya Polyana at the end of his life (more on how Tolstoy fled his home can be found here).

During World War I, Alexandra was a nurse at the front. She opposed the Bolshevik Revolution and, in 1920, she was arrested for making anti-Bolshevik pronouncements. Tolstoy's daughter spent three years in prison camps, but she was released early following representations from the peasants of Yasnaya Polyana.

After that, she became curator of the Yasnaya Polyana Museum and devoted herself to the preservation of her father's legacy and educational activities, but she was constantly in the cross-hairs of the special services. And, in 1929, having gone to Japan to give a series of lectures, she decided not to return to the USSR. She subsequently settled in the U.S. and renounced her Soviet citizenship. She lectured about Tolstoy and set up the Tolstoy Foundation to help Russian refugees.

In the USSR, all mention of her name was banned, because she had spoken up not only against the Soviet authorities, but also, for instance, in defense of General Vlasov, describing him as a hero, while, to the Soviet authorities, he was a collaborator, who had sided with the Nazis and was regarded by them as a traitor-in-chief. At Yasnaya Polyana, she was removed from all the photographs and her very name could no longer be mentioned.

Alexandra wrote a lot of memoirs and jottings about her father. Her personal life wasn't particularly happy – she never married and had no children.

You can read more about Alexandra here.

13. Ivan (1888-1895)

Sofia Andreyevna gave birth to her last child at the age of 44. Little Vanya brought a whole lot of love into the family in a remarkable manner – he was a splendid and happy little boy. One day, he was asking his mother about his dead brother Alexei and wanted to know whether it was true that children who died before they were seven became angels. Sofia Andreyevna replied that this is what people said. And Vanya replied: "It would be better, Mummy, if I also die before I'm seven. It's my birthday soon and I'd become an angel, too." He did not live to the age of seven, dying of scarlet fever.

Tolstoy's daughter Maria wrote that the loss of Vanya was a source of terrible grief for Sofia Andreyevna and that Tolstoy himself was hugely affected.

***

Timofei Bazykin (1860-?)

"A very clever bloke, he spoke nicely and came out with humorous sayings, he looked like Tolstoy's sons. He didn't spend much time in the village, he worked as coachman to the Tolstoy sons…" is how the peasants of Yasnaya Polyana remembered him.

Timofei Bazykin (or Anikanov) was believed to be Tolstoy's illegitimate son with a peasant woman named Aksinya Bazykina. He was born two years prior to Tolstoy's marriage to Sofia Andreyevna. And, later, he worked at Yasnaya Polyana as a coachman.

"Tolstoy's illegitimate son looks remarkably like him, only he's more well-built and good looking. Timofei is an excellent coachman who has lived with his three legitimate brothers in turn, but has not managed to get along with anyone, because of his fondness for vodka," wrote Tolstoy's son-in-law Mikhail Sukhotin, the husband of Tatyana. He noted that Tolstoy felt no awkwardness and presumed that his father-in-law was indifferent to his past.

By all accounts, Sofia Andreyevna also knew about Timofei, but did not let on. In her diary, she once recorded a dream, in which Aksinya had come to her with a child and she tore it to pieces… Before their wedding, Tolstoy had given his young bride-to-be his diary to read and confessed all he had got up to as a bachelor.

#literature #Children in Russia #Leo Tolstoy