Alexandra Tolstaya
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Alexandra Lvovna Tolstaya | |
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![]() Alexandra with her father | |
Born | Yasnaya Polyana, Russia | 18 July 1884
Died | 26 September 1979 Valley Cottage, New York, USA | (aged 95)
Parent(s) | Leo Tolstoy Sophia Tolstaya |
Countess Alexandra (Sasha) Lvovna Tolstaya (Russian: Александра Львовна Толстая; 18 June 1884 – 26 September 1979), often anglicized to Tolstoy, was the youngest daughter and secretary of the noted Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy.[1][2][3]
Biography[]
The youngest daughter of Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) and of his wife Sophia (1844–1919), Alexandra was close to her father. In 1901, at the age of seventeen, she became his secretary. He appointed her as executor of his will, a task she had to undertake in 1910.[4] Although Alexandra shared her father's belief in non-violence, she felt it was her duty to take part in the events of the First World War and served as a nurse on the Turkish and German fronts. This led to her being gassed and admitted to hospital herself. After the war, she worked on an edition of her father's writings. However, after allowing White Russians to meet in her Moscow home, she was arrested five times by the Bolsheviks and in 1920 was sent to prison for a year.[4]
In 1921 she became the director of the Tolstoy museum at Yasnaya Polyana. She was given permission to leave the Soviet Union in 1929 and went to Japan in the same year.[5] Originally given permission to stay for six months to study schools,[6] she ultimately stayed in the country for 18 months.[7] She worked as a lecturer on Tolstoy and as a Russian teacher,[6] and was supported by Japanese literary and academic circles.[7]
In 1931 she left Japan and settled in the United States, where she gave lectures and worked as a chicken farmer. Some years into this life, she was visited by Tatiana Schaufuss, an old friend who had spent several years in prison and in exile in Siberia. Together, in 1939 they founded the Tolstoy Foundation.[4]
Tolstaya became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1941, abandoning the use of the title of countess.[8]
In the summer of 1948, Tolstaya met 18 year old future United States Senator Mike Gravel, who had intended to volunteer for the Israeli forces in a fight to defend the state of Israel, and she allegedly told him to instead "go on back home and finish school", to which he complied.[9][10]
In 1974, at the age of ninety, Tolstaya received birthday greetings from President of the United States Richard Nixon, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and others, and was interviewed by The New York Times.[4] She commented:
“I don't believe in everything the Orthodox Church says, I don't believe in miracles, but want the people to go to church. Maybe my father could live without church and without God, but we weaker people need something to support us. They will say I am old fashioned, but I am afraid for this country, because of lack of religion among the young ones, drugs, immorality and the shamelessness of youth.”[4]
References[]
- ^ "Alexandra Lvovna Tolstaya Biography". Archived from the original on 11 April 2013. Retrieved 28 March 2013.
- ^ "Alexandra Tolstaya Biography". Archived from the original on 11 April 2013. Retrieved 28 March 2013.
- ^ "The Tolstoys". Archived from the original on 11 February 2015. Retrieved 28 March 2013.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Israel Shenker, “Alexandra Tolstoy, at 90, Is Honored for Lifetime of Helping Others” in The New York Times dated July 2, 1974
- ^ Tolstaya, Alexandra. お伽の国‐日本―海を渡ったトルストイの娘. Translated by Davis, Fumiko. ISBN 9784903619057.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Annan, Gabriele (1982-04-01). "Tolstoy's Daughter". London Review of Books. 04 (06). ISSN 0260-9592. Retrieved 2021-06-15.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Davis, Fumiko (March 14, 2018). "What Today's Youth Can Learn From the Great Russian Writer Leo Tolstoy". Japan Forward. Retrieved June 15, 2018.
- ^ Deseret News, 2 July 1974 p. 2A.
- ^ "Mike Gravel on Foreign Policy". OnTheIssues. 2019-12-15. Retrieved 2021-04-12.
- ^ Gravel, Mike; Lauria, Joe; Ellsberg, Daniel (2008). A Political Odyssey: The Rise of American Militarism and One Man's Fight to Stop It. New York: Seven Stories Press. p. 128. ISBN 978-1583228265.
Sources[]
- Rayfield, Donald, Stalin and His Hangmen, Random House, 2004, ISBN 0-375-75771-6.
External links[]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Alexandra Tolstaya. |
- Countess Alexandra Tolstoy interview at YouTube
- Oral history interview with Alexandra Tolstoy 1966 on the subject of Soviet Union History - Revolution, 1917-1921
- Bio at Tolstoy Foundation web site
- Picture of Alexandra Tolstoy in Valley Cottage[dead link]
- The human spirit is free(in Russian), Alexandra Tolstaya's appearances by Radio Svoboda's microphone. Introduction by Ivan Tolstoy, April 28, 2008.
- 1970 film from National Archive
- Saint Sergius Learning Center founded in association with Tolstoy Foundation in Valley Cottage
- 1884 births
- 1979 deaths
- Burials at Novo-Diveevo Russian Cemetery
- Colonels (military rank)
- Countesses of the Russian Empire
- Leo Tolstoy
- Russian anti-communists
- Russian women
- Russian women of World War I
- Tolstoy family
- Tolstoyans
- Naturalized citizens of the United States
- White Russian emigrants to the United States
- Women in the Russian and Soviet military
- Russian people of German descent