- Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy
Infobox Writer
name = Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy
caption = Aleksei Nikolaevich Tolstoi.
birthname = Aleksei Nikolaevich Tolstoi
birthdate = birth date|1883|1|10|mf=y
birthplace =Pugachyov ,Saratov Oblast (then "Nikolaevsk")
deathdate = death date and age|1945|2|23|1883|1|10|mf=y
deathplace =Moscow ,Soviet Union
occupation =Novelist ,Poet ,Journalist ,Short story writer
nationality =Russia n
period = 1907-1945
genre =Science fiction ,Historical fiction
influences =Symbolism ,Eugene O'Neill Aleksei Nikolaevich Tolstoi ( _ru. Алексей Николаевич Толстой) (
January 10 ,1883 (December 29 ,1882 (O.S.)) -February 23 ,1945 ), nicknamed the "Comrade Count", was a Russian writer who wrote in many genres but specialized in science fiction and historical novels.Early life
He was born in Nikolaevsk (now
Pugachyov ,Saratov Oblast ) in 1883 into an impoverished branch of the Counts Tolstoi. His father was a retiredhussar and landowner, Count Nikolay Alexandrovich Tolstoi, and his mother was a children's writer Alexandra Leonievna Bostrom (born Turgeneva, also known as Alexandra Tolstoi). Aleksei was the fourth child in the Tolstoi's family. When his mother was two months pregnant, she fled the family with her lover, Aleksei Apollonovich Bostrom. In accordance with the divorce law of the time, the guilty party (Alexandra) was forbidden to remarry, and the only way for her to keep her newborn son was to register him as a son of Bostrom. Thus, until the age of thirteen, Aleksei had lived under the name of Aleksei Bostrom and had not suspected that Aleksei Bostrom Sr. was not his biological parent. In 1896 both Tolstoi and Bostrom families went into bureaucratic pains to re-register Aleksei as "count Tolstoi". Still, he considered Aleksei Bostrom his true father and had hardly ever seen Nikolai Tolstoi and his older siblings.In 1900 Nikolai Tolstoi died, having left Aleksei with 30,000 rubles and a famous family name. Later, he assumed a rather humorous attitude towards the Tolstoi's heritage. He was known for filling the walls of his apartment with darkened portraits and telling newcomers tales about his Tolstoi ancestors; then he would explain to his friends that all the portraits were purchased at random from a nearby secondhand store and that the stories were complete fiction.
Literary career
Tolstoi's early short stories were panned by
Alexander Blok and other leading critics of the time for their excessive naturalism, wanton eroticism, and general lack of taste in the manner ofMikhail Artsybashev . Somepornographic stories published under Tolstoy's name in the early 1900s were purportedly penned by him; however, most critics remain sceptical as to whether Tolstoi is the real author.Aleksei Tolstoi left
Russia in 1917 during theBolshevik October Revolution and emigrated first toGermany and later toFrance . In 1923, he repatriated and accepted theSoviet regime, having become one of its most popular writers. He became a staunch supporter of theCommunist Party to the end, writing stories eulogizingStalin and collaborating withMaxim Gorky on the infamous account of their trip to theWhite Sea-Baltic Canal .He published two lengthy historical novels, "Peter the First" (1929-45), in which he sought to liken Peter's policies to those of Stalin, and "The Road to Calvary" (1922-41) tracking the period from 1914 to 1919 including the
Russian Civil War . He also wrote several plays.Aleksei Tolstoi is usually credited with having produced some of the earliest
science fiction in theRussian language . His novels "Aelita" (1923) about a journey toMars and "The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin " (1927) have gained immense public popularity, the former having spawned an pioneering sci-fi movie in 1924. Besides "Aelita " (1924), several other movies released in the USSR are based on Tolstoi's novels.Tolstoi also penned several books for children, starting with "Nikita's Childhood", a memorable account of his early years (the book is sometimes mistakenly believed to be about his son, Nikita; in truth, however, he only used the name because it was his favorite - and he would later give it to his eldest son). Most notably, in 1936, he created an adaptation of the famous Italian fairy tale about
Pinocchio entitled the "Adventures ofBuratino or The Golden Key", whose main character, Buratino, quickly became hugely popular among the Soviet populace.His supernatural short story Count Cagliostro inspired the 1984 film Formula of Love.
Tolstoi became a full member of the
USSR Academy of Sciences in 1939. WriterTatyana Tolstaya is his granddaughter.Legacy
A
minor planet 3771 Alexejtolstoj , discovered by Soviet astronomerLyudmila Zhuravlyova in 1974 is named after him. [cite book| last = Schmadel| first = Lutz D.| coauthors =| title = Dictionary of Minor Planet Names| pages = p. 319| edition = 5th | year = 2003| publisher = Springer Verlag| location = New York| url = http://books.google.com/books?q=3771+Alexejtolstoj&btnG=Search+Books| id = ISBN 3540002383]elected Works
*"Lirika", a poetry collection (1907)
*"The Ordeal" (1918)
*"Nikita's Childhood" (1921)
*"The Road to Calvary", a trilogy (1921-40,Stalin Prize in 1943)
*"Aelita" (1923)
*"The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin " (aka "The Garin Death Ray") (1926)
*"Peter I" (1929-34,Stalin Prize in 1941)
*"A Week in Turenevo" (published posthumously, 1958)
*"Count Cagliostro" (supernatural short story)
*"The Family of the Vourdalak (Sem'ya Vurdalaka)" - Inspired the episode "The Wurdalack" inMario Bava ´s movie "Black Sabbath", featuringBoris Karloff .References
*cite book| first=Nikolai| last=Tolstoy| year=1983| title=The Tolstoys. Twenty-four generations of Russian history| publisher=Hamish Hamilton| id=ISBN 0-241-10979-5
External links
* [http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/atolstoi.htm Aleksei Nikolaevich Tolstoi (1883-1945)]
* [http://www.sovlit.com/bios/tolstoy.html A.N. Tolstoy at SovLit.com]
* [http://hronos.km.ru/biograf/tolstoy_an.html Biography]
* [http://az.lib.ru/t/tolstoj_a_n/ Works of Aleksei Tolstoy]
*imdb name|id=0866238|name=Aleksei N. Tolstoy
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=10504216 Find-A-Grave biography]
* [http://www.sovlit.com/bios/tolstoy.html Soviet Literature Bio]
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