Parents

Leo Tolstoy’s mother, Princess Marya Nikolayevna Volkonsky, the only child of Prince Nicholas Sergeyevich Volkonsky and Princess Katerina Dmitrievna Trubetskoy, is born on November 10, 1790. When she is only two years old, her mother dies. (Coincidentally, about four decades later, Marya dies when her son Leo is about two years old.)

Marya, an only child, and her father are devoted to each other and live a very pleasant life in the country with many servants, including two female companions. He gives her a thorough education that includes tuition in several European languages, mathematics and the piano. Marriage negotiations commence but her fiancé, Prince Golitsyn, dies of typhoid fever.

Leo Tolstoy’s father, Count Nicholas Ilich Tolstoy, is the only male of three children born to Count Ilya Andreevich Tolstoy and Pelagya Nikolayevna (nee Gorchakov). The children witness great extravagance in their early lives and things sour after their father wastes the family fortune.

In 1812 at the age of 18 Nicholas joins the army. Within a short time he is taken prisoner by the French. Once liberated, he is made a major, then a lieutenant-colonel, but the bad behaviour of his father prevents him pursuing a military career. He moves in with his parents in Kazan, takes a public position and lives the high life.

Princess Volkonsky and Count Tolstoy marry on July 9, 1822. It is a negotiated marriage, not one founded on love. She is 31 years of age and five years older than the bridegroom. The marriage fills the very big hole left the previous year by the recent death of her beloved father.

The death of his father left Nicholas with hefty inherited debts and responsibility for a household that includes his mother. A rich marriage is his ideal. Marya is homely and plain with her father’s very dark eyebrows but she brings a dowry of 800 male serfs and considerable landholdings including the country estate Yasnaya Polyana. It is situated 190 miles south of the Russian capital of Moscow and 14 kilometres from the town of Tula, a provincial capital known for the manufacture of artillery and samovars.

Death of Leo's Mother
Death of Leo's Father