| Sophia Tolstaya | |
|---|---|
| Born | Sophia Andreyevna Behrs 22 August 1844 |
| Died | 4 November 1919 (aged 75) Yasnaya Polyana, Tula Governorate, Soviet Russia |
| Nationality | Russian |
| Spouse | Leo Tolstoy |
| Children | 13 children; 8 survived childhood |
| Parents | Andrey Behrs Liubov Alexandrovna Behrs |
Countess Sophia Andreyevna Tolstaya (née Behrs) (Russian: Со́фья Андре́евна Толста́я, in German transliteration Sofja Andrejewna Tolstaja, sometimes Anglicised as Sophia Tolstoy; August 22, 1844 – November 4, 1919), was the wife of Russian novelist and thinker Leo Tolstoy.
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Sophia was one of 3 daughters of the physician Andrey Evstafievich Behrs (1808-1868), and his wife Liubov Alexandrovna Behrs, née Islavinoy (1826-1886). She was first introduced to Leo Tolstoy in 1862, when she was 18 years old. At 34, Tolstoy was 16 years her senior. On 17 September 1862 the couple became formally engaged after Tolstoy gave Sophia a written proposal of marriage,[1] marrying a week later in Moscow.[2] At the time of their marriage, Leo Tolstoy was already well-known as a novelist after the publication of The Cossacks. On the eve of their marriage, Tolstoy gave Sophia his diaries detailing his sexual relations with female serfs. In Anna Karenina, 34 year old Constantine Levin, a semi-autobiographical character behaves similarly, asking his 19 year old fiancée Kitty to read his diaries and learn of his past transgressions.
The diary included the fact that he had fathered a child by a woman who remained on the Yasnaya Polyana estate. In Anne Edward's Sonya, she describes Sophia as having a deep fear that Tolstoy would somehow re-enter a relationship with the woman.
The Tolstoys had 13 children, eight of whom survived childhood.[3] The family was prosperous, owing to Tolstoy's efficient management of his estates and to the sales of his works, making it possible to provide adequately for the family.
Tolstaya was a devoted help to her husband in his literary work. She acted as copyist of War and Peace, copying the manuscript seven times from beginning to end.[2] In 1887, Tolstaya took up the relatively new art of photography.[4] She took over a thousand photographs that documented her life, including with Tolstoy, and the decline of pre-Soviet Tsarist Russia.[5] She was also a diarist and documented her life with Leo Tolstoy in a series of diaries which were published in English translation in the 1980s.[6] Tolstaya wrote her memoirs as well, which she titled My Life.[7]
After many years of an increasingly troubled marriage—the couple argued over Tolstoy's desire to give away all his private property [8] -- Leo left Sophia abruptly in 1910, aged 82, with his doctor, Dushan Makovicki (Dušan Makovický), and daughter Alexandra Tolstaya. Tolstoy died 10 days later in a railway station, whilst Sophia was kept away from him (as depicted in the film, The Last Station).[4] Following the death of her husband, Sophia continued to live in Yasnaya Polyana and survived the Russian Revolution in relative peace. She died in 1919.
With the belated increase in interest on the biography of Sophia Tolstaya raised and some new works on her biography which are based on the memoires of the writers wife were published:
She was portrayed by Helen Mirren in the 2009 biographical film, The Last Station , based on the 1990 biographical novel of the same name by Jay Parini,[9] while the role of her husband Leo Tolstoy was portrayed by Christopher Plummer. Both actors were nominated for Academy Awards in their respective categories. Her life was also serialised in August 2010 by BBC's Radio 4, 'A Simple Life'.