L.N. Tolstoy – Artist, Thinker, Preacher: Problems of Interpretation of the Classic’s Worldview

The article is devoted to the peculiarities of studying the worldview of Leo Tol­stoy as a writer, publicist and philosopher, whose views are reflected in various sources. According to the author, attempts that existed since the second half of the 19th century to characterize the very essence of Tolstoy’s view of the world, his attitude to the most important problems of human existence, were often based on a selective approach to the sources of studying the work of Leo Tolstoy, on the desire to focus only on some aspects of the worldview of the classic of Russian literature. With this approach, Tolstoy could be considered a “psychic of the flesh”, an exponent of the “Apollonian” principle, or a deep metaphysical thinker whose spiritual heritage is of particular importance. He could be per­ceived primarily as a writer whose whole picture of the world is reflected in his artistic work, in the images he created, or as a publicist-preacher, author of works of a didactic nature. Tolstoy could be considered either a social reformer or a reli­gious philosopher, far from social realities. According to the author, only a com­prehensive review of all sources that reflect the worldview of the great writer will help to completely reconstruct the foundations of Tolstoy’s teaching and give a new impetus to the development of Tolstoy studies. In this regard, the study of the “Corpus of thoughts of L.N. Tolstoy” (1889–1923), a monument created with the participation of like-minded writers: V.G. Chertkov, F.A. Strakhov, etc., acquires special importance. “Corpus of thoughts” reflects all aspects of Tolstoy’s worldview.