Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy

Aleksei Nikolaevich Tolstoi.

Aleksei Nikolaevich Tolstoi (or Tolstoy)(Russian: Алексей Николаевич Толстой) (January 10, 1883 (December 29, 1882 (O.S.)) - February 23, 1945), nicknamed the Comrade Count, was a Soviet Russian writer who wrote in many genres but specialized in science fiction and historical novels. He won several prizes and also produced literature for the Communist party in Russia. From his writing, it would be easy to conclude that he was committed to the ideology of the Soviet Union. However, he appears to have lent his art to the cause of state propaganda more out of pragmatic reasons than from any deeply cherished convictions. In fact, his art does not appear to have been informed by any deep sense of moral awareness. The fact that some of his work merits serious consideration as literature suggests that he did possess a rare and a real talent. His legacy perhaps serves to show how literature and art can be used in service of ideology, so that even great talent can be corrupted by state power. He did not mind using his art to serve the state even though he did not strongly support the state ideology that his writing endorsed.

Life

He was born in Nikolaevsk (now Pugachyov, Saratov Oblast) in 1883 into an impoverished branch of the Counts Tolstoi. His father was a retired hussar and landowner, Count Nikolay Alexandrovich Tolstoi, and his mother was a children's writer Alexandra Leonievna Bostrom (born Turgeneva, also known as Alexandra Tolstoi). Aleksei was the fourth child in the Tolstoi's family. When his mother was two months pregnant with him, she fled the family with her lover, Aleksei Apollonovich Bostrom, leaving three other children behind. In accordance with the divorce law of the time, the guilty party (Alexandra) was forbidden to remarry, and the only way for her to keep her newborn son was to register him as a son of Bostrom. Thus, until the age of thirteen, Aleksei had lived under the name of Aleksei Bostrom and had not suspected that Aleksei Bostrom Sr. was not his biological parent. In 1896 both Tolstoi and Bostrom families went into bureaucratic pains to re-register Aleksei as count Tolstoi. Still, he considered Aleksei Bostrom his true father and had hardly ever seen Nikolai Tolstoi and his older siblings.

In 1900 Nikolai Tolstoi died, having left Aleksei with 30,000 rubles (a considerable fortune for the time) and a famous family name. Later, he assumed a rather humorous attitude towards the Tolstoi's heritage. He was known for filling the walls of his apartment with old, darkened portraits and telling newcomers tales about his Tolstoi's ancestors; then he would explain to his friends that all the portraits were purchased at random from a nearby secondhand store and that the stories were complete fiction.

1901-1908 he was studying at St. Petersgurg Technological Institute, which could have contributed to his sci-fi interrest.

Tolstoi's early short stories were panned by Alexander Blok and other leading critics of the time for their excessive naturalism, wanton eroticism, and general lack of taste in the manner of Mikhail Artsybashev. Some pornographic stories published under Tolstoy's name in the early 1900s were purportedly penned by him; however, most critics remain sceptical as to whether Tolstoi is the real author.

In 1914-1916 Tolstoi worked as a war correspondent for the newspaper "Russkie vedomosti" 'Russian bulletin'. He made several visits to the Front line, and travelled in France and England, Russian alies in WWI. Tolstoi's war experiences formed the background of "Na voyne" 'In the war' (1914-16), a collection of stories. In 1917 Tolstoi worked for General Anton Denikin's propaganda section. Unable to accept the Russian Revolution, he emigrated next year with his family to Paris. Gradually he changed his mind and few years later he moved to Berlin where he joined a pro-Communist émigré group and became the editor of the Bolshevik newspaper "Nakanune" 'On the eve'. With a change in his political beliefs, Tolstoi broke with the emigre circles and repatriated accepting the Soviet regime. From West Tolstoy brought with him the novel "Syostry" 'Sisters' (1922), the first part of his trilogy "Road to Calvary" (1922-42), tracking the period from 1914 to 1919 including the Russian Civil War. After an uneasy period, when he was suspected because of his aristocratic origins, Tolstoi established himself among the leading Soviet writers. He became a staunch supporter of the Communist Party to the end, writing stories eulogizing Stalin and collaborating with Maxim Gorky on the infamous account of their trip to the White Sea-Baltic Canal.

In 1936 he was elected Chairman of the Writer's Union and a deputy to the Supreme Soviet in 1937. Two years later he was elected member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences (1939). During World War II he served as a journalist and propagandist. His patriotic articles were collected in "Chto my zashchishchayem" 'What we defend' (1942) and "Rodina" 'Motherland'(1943).

Beside The Road to Calvary he has published another lengthy historical novels, Peter the First (1929-45), in which he sought to liken Peter's policies to those of Stalin. He has also written several plays.

Aleksei Tolstoi is usually credited with having produced some of the earliest (and best) science fiction in the Russian language. His novels Aelita (1923) about a journey to Mars and Engineer Garin's Hyperboloid (1927) about laser beam generator of sorts have gained immense public popularity. The former spawned a pioneering sci-fi movie in 1924, and the second had at least two screen versions. Besides these two, several other movies released in the USSR are based on Tolstoi's novels.

Tolstoi has also penned several books for children, starting with Nikita's Childhood, a memorable account of his son's early years. Most notably, in 1936, he created Russian adaptation of the famous Italian fairy tale about Pinocchio entitled the Adventures of Buratino or The Golden Key, whose main character, Buratino, quickly became hugely popular among the Soviet populace, and was filmed couple of times, too.

Tolstoi became a full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1939. Writer Tatyana Tolstaya is his granddaughter.

Tolstoi died in Moscow on February 23, 1945.

Family

Tolstoi was married four times. His first wife was Yulia Vasilievna Rozhanskaya, second - Sophia Isaakovna Dymshits. From 1915 his third wife was Natalia Vasilyevna Grandievskaya. From 1935 his forth wife was Lyudmila Ilyinichna Krestinskaya. He had one doughter Maryana and two sons, Nikita (physisist) and Dmitriy (composer). His grandchildren are Mikhail (physist), Natalya (philologist) and Tatyana (writer).

Works

• Lirika, a poetry collection (1907)
• The Ordeal (1918)
• Nikita's Childhood (1921)
• The Road to Calvary, a trilogy (1921-40, Stalin Prize in 1943)
• Aelita (1923)
• The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin (aka The Garin Death Ray) (1926)
• Peter I (1929-34, Stalin Prize in 1941)
• A Week in Turenevo (1958)

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Tolstoy, Nikolai The Tolstoys. Twenty-four generations of Russian history, NY: William Morrow & Co; 1st Quill ed edition 1986 ISBN 0688066747
• Tolstoy, Aleksey, N Aelita: Or, the decline of Mars, NY: Ardis Publishing, 1985 ISBN 0882337882
• Tolstoy, Aleksey N My Country, London, Hutchinson & co.,1943 ASIN B0007IZVDQ

External links

• Aleksei Nikolaevich Tolstoi (1883-1945), Books and Writers, observed December 24, 2006.
• "Восхождение на писательский Олимп", ссылка на XPOHOC Толстой Алексей Николаевич (Russian language), observed December 24, 2006.
• "Толстой Алексей Николаевич: Проза ", Lib.Ru/Классика, (Russian language), observed December 24, 2006.
• "Aleksei N. Tolstoy", Find-A-Grave, observed Decemebr 24, 2006.

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