Leo Tolstoy and English literature: The background of creative dialogue
Authors:   National Research Tomsk State University, Gnyusova Irina F. 
Published: December 2024

The article aims to identify the reasons for Leo Tolstoy's keen interest in English literature, which manifested itself throughout his life. The writer's diaries, letters and personal library as well as the opinion journalism of the 1850s–1860s were the material for the research. The cultural background is considered: it is determined that Tolstoy's desire to learn English was caused by his desire to meet the cultural norms of the educated part of society. By analysing Tolstoy's fascination with Laurence Sterne's A Sentimental Journey it is revealed that the aesthetics of sentimentalism with its attention to human personality, sympathetic interest in the "movements of the soul" became the "foundation" for Tolstoy's perception of English culture. In this connection, the philosophical basis of A Sentimental Journey – the works of the philosopher David Hume – is also considered. The question of the reasons for Tolstoy's admiration of Hume's The History of England is examined in detail: in it the philosopher continues the study of human nature. The article also considers the literary and social preconditions of Tolstoy's interest in England: he enters the circle of the Sovremennik in the period of literary "marking time" of the 1850s, when the leading journals actively printed translated literature. It is shown how English literature, in particular Thackeray's novels, becomes Tolstoy's argument in the aesthetic dispute between the supporters of "pure art" and Gogol's direction. Much attention is paid to the socio-political reasons for Tolstoy's attention to England: the preparation of reforms and the possibility of their open discussion in the press lead to a search for historical and social analogues. England becomes a "high model" in the transformation of Russia. Tolstoy's pedagogical activity is also considered in the context of social revitalisation. In 1862, Tolstoy began to publish a pedagogical journal, Yasnaya Polyana, in which he also touched upon issues of a socio-political nature. The tone of Tolstoy's statements in his articles is similar to the pathos of the journalism of the time, which pointed to civil liberties in England as the basis for political stability. The article also discusses Tolstoy's trip to London and his two unrealised attempts to emigrate to Europe. Describing his indignation at police and judicial arbitrariness and his desire to "go to England, because only there individual liberty is secured", Tolstoy accurately reproduces the antithesis between Russian and British statehood, which was characteristic of the journalism of the time. The final conclusion is that Tolstoy was close to the ethical and philosophical basis of English literature, its humanistic pathos and principled "moralising". Attention to English literature could be a consequence of the gravitation of the educated part of Russian society to "Anglomania". And the "catalyst" was the circumstances of social and literary order: the stagnation in the literary life of Russia in the middle of the century and the surge of interest in English social institutions in connection with the preparation of reforms.