As you know, the great writer, the ruler of the thoughts of his time - Leo Tolstoy, had a large family. One of the younger sons of the writer (the tenth child in a row) is Count Tolstoy Mikhail. This article is dedicated to his fate.
Childhood and youth
Misha Tolstoy was born in 1879. At this time, his father was going through a deep spiritual crisis, looking for the meaning of his life and the meaning of the lives of those around him. The family relations of the Tolstoy spouses went wrong, so the younger children grew up in a rather difficult atmosphere.
Mikhail Lvovich Tolstoy received more attention from his mother, Sofia Andreevna, however, his father also tried to have serious conversations with the child and awaken the spirit of high morality in him.
By the way, the boy grew up as a very kind and calm child, his family also paid attention to this, who appreciated his cordiality and caring in little Misha.
Musical ability and military service
The children of Leo Tolstoy partially inherited the talent of their great parent. He just showed up differently. Tolstoy Mikhail was gifted musically. Withchildhood, he was very fond of music, he sang, played and even tried to compose himself. Everything was easy for Mikhail: he managed to learn how to play Russian folk instruments such as balalaika and accordion, mastered the piano perfectly, wrote magnificent romances, some of which have survived to this day.
But despite his dream of becoming a composer or, at worst, just a performer and musician, Mikhail Tolstoy followed in his father's footsteps and chose (as befits the son of a nobleman) a military career.
He entered the service at the age of 20 in 1899. A year later, Mikhail received the rank of ensign. Mikhail Lvovich had to fight pretty much already during the First World War. Fate, however, spared him: the brave officer did not die, but he survived all the horrors of the revolution, and fought during the Civil War. So, instead of a musician, life turned the kind and generous Mikhail into a military man.
The life of a Russian landowner
However, Mikhail Lvovich managed to live a piece of his life away from the city, in the bosom of nature, surrounded by loving relatives. The fact is that he married quite early. Married for love. It happened back in 1901. His chosen one was Alexandra Vladimirovna Glebova, an educated and spiritually sensitive woman. The marriage produced 9 children. Tolstoy Mikhail was as prolific as his father Lev Nikolayevich.
The Tolstoys lived following the example of their parents in a small estate, they led a quiet and secluded life. If the war of 1914 had not happened, perhaps Mikhail Lvovich would have died, writing his romances and raising grandchildren and great-grandchildren. But family happiness in the bosom of nature was very short-lived. A story burst into the life of this Russian family with her desire to change everything in the country.
Emigration
As you know, Leo Tolstoy himself died at a ripe old age in 1910. He was very skeptical about the idea of a possible revolution in Russia.
Leo Tolstoy's children met the revolution differently. Although in general the attitude of the Tolstoy family towards her can be called wary. As a result, most of the former Counts Tolstoy ended up abroad, as they did not develop relations with the Soviet authorities. M. L. Tolstoy was also forced to emigrate. He took his entire family with him. It happened in 1920.
Tolstoy had a hard time abroad. There was no work, the former nobles were forced to work odd jobs and live very modestly. Discord began in Michael's family. The father of the family was forced to leave his wife for a while. And although Mikhail Lvovich was supported by his friends (such as, for example, the famous Russian emigrant Fyodor Chaliapin), he still had a hard time.
As a result, Tolstoy decided to leave for Morocco. It was in this southern country that his sons lived, who could at least somehow financially support their already elderly father. Soon his wife came to see Tolstoy.
It was in Morocco that Michael wrote his only literary work. They became a kind of memoir describing how the Tolstoy family lived in Yasnaya Polyana. This novel was called "Mitya Tiverin" andwas imbued with kind and tender memories of that family and that country, which could no longer be returned.
Mikhail Lvovich Tolstoy died in Morocco in 1944, at the height of another terrible world war.
