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- "When a nation takes world names out of its cultural context, it impoverishes itself"
"When a nation takes world names out of its cultural context, it impoverishes itself"
The summit of the CIS heads of state ended in Dushanbe in mid-October. It was attended by the Presidents of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, who were awarded the L.N. Tolstoy International Peace Prize in 2025. The writer's great-grandson, Vladimir Tolstoy, believes that it can replace the Nobel Prize. In an exclusive interview with Izvestia, he told how the country is preparing for the 200th anniversary of the classic, what is annoying in modern interpretations and what to expect from the film adaptation of Sergei Ursulyak.
"The Nobel Prize and the Oscar are becoming more and more politicized"
— In a sense, the Leo Tolstoy International Peace Prize is in conflict with the Nobel Peace Prize. How do they differ conceptually?
— It was not conceived as an alternative to the Nobel Prize. It's just that in recent years, the big Western awards — the Nobel and Oscar — have become increasingly politicized and do not always fairly reflect the events that actually take place in cinema, literature and the world of big politics. Therefore, Russia offers a more objective view. Maybe when the world comes to a balance, one bonus will be enough. And, perhaps, she will receive the Leo Tolstoy Award.
— This year's laureates were just three politicians — the leaders of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
— In my opinion, this is a correct and understandable decision, because today there are several pain points in the world where global geopolitical problems are being solved. These are, of course, the Middle East, the Balkans, and the Central Asian republics, which are very important as a springboard for peace throughout Greater Eurasia. I am sure that we do not overestimate the contribution of the three leaders of the most important Central Asian countries of the former Soviet Union.
— Can an ordinary person from the people become a laureate?
— I think anything is possible, but his activities or actions should be reasoned and understandable to all people. I have just returned from Kyrgyzstan, where we did the exhibition "Leo Tolstoy and Chingiz Aitmatov. A dialogue through a century." Curiously, Aitmatov was born exactly 100 years after Tolstoy. The roll calls of their creativity, thoughts, and social activities are very interesting.
Almost 40 years ago, in 1986, he organized a famous forum on the shores of Issyk-Kul, where both the world's leading intellectuals and heads of state came. At that time, Chingiz Aitmatov was at the center of this peacemaking process, which is still relevant today. A man of this stature could well have been awarded the Leo Tolstoy Individual Award.
— Will there be a grand presentation this year?
— There is a subtle point related to the laureates themselves. Agreements must be reached at the highest governmental level. As a rule, the heads of state are received by our president. It would be logical to assume that the award ceremony would be timed to coincide with a pre-approved meeting. Last year, the ceremony was tied to Tolstoy's birthday. There is no information yet this year, probably at the end of the year.
"Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Pushkin, Chekhov are neither warm nor cold from vandalism"
— The Leo Tolstoy Prize is named after a great writer and thinker whose ideas of humanism and nonviolence remain modern. How much are these ideas in demand today in the context of increased attention to defense and security issues?
— The most important thing is that Tolstoy remains an absolute moral authority for all mankind. Even if we are talking about clumsy attempts to abolish Russian culture, which, by the way, are becoming fewer and fewer. I have to meet with representatives of so-called unfriendly States. They all absolutely unanimously recognize Tolstoy's moral leadership as a great world writer and say they are waiting for the moment when the doors can be opened again.
It is not for nothing that the cumulative circulation of his books, translated into all languages of the world, remains one of the largest after the Bible. He is equally a moral authority for India. Mahatma Gandhi considered Tolstoy his teacher. And the whole of India considers Mahatma Gandhi to be the teacher of the nation, so Tolstoy is a teacher's teacher for Hindus. I can say the same about China. They compare him to Confucius and Lao Tzu, their greatest sages. The same applies to the attitude towards Tolstoy in Japan, South Korea, the United States, and in the intellectual circles of European countries. Tolstoy is a reconciling figure for all countries of the world.
— At the same time, monuments of Russian writers, poets, and composers are going to be dismantled in Ukraine again. I don't need to tell you that two monuments to Tolstoy were demolished in Odessa and Krivoy Rog. How do you perceive such cases?
— This is a gesture of desperation and evidence of extreme bitterness. We have suffered more than one major war. The victory in the Great Patriotic War, where our opponent was Nazi Germany, is very fresh in my memory. It never occurred to anyone to abolish German culture. No Goethe, no Schiller, no Bach, no Beethoven. They have nothing to do with the war. It's the same here. When a nation tries to take world names out of its cultural context, it simply impoverishes itself.
Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Pushkin, Chekhov are neither warm nor cold from vandalism. It's just metal. But initially they were staged as an expression of love and respect. By the way, the Fattest one needed it the least. He didn't like posing for artists. He did this only out of friendship for Repin, Kramskoy, or his friend Nikolai Ge.
"No one has contacted Sarik"
— In three years, Russia will celebrate the 200th anniversary of Lev Nikolaevich. What events are you preparing for this grand date?
— We are preparing hard. Back in 2021, Vladimir Putin issued a decree to celebrate Tolstoy's 200th birthday. The committee includes at least a dozen federal ministers, as well as, probably, heads of regions and various cultural figures.
All major places related to Tolstoy's life and work should be restored: in Yasnaya Polyana, Moscow, Kazan, the Chechen Republic, and the Lipetsk Region, where Tolstoy's last days were spent. We will try to create a museum of Lev Nikolaevich's manuscript. For now, they are stored in a steel room. But there is no access to them for researchers and ordinary people who are interested in Tolstoy's work.
The house of the writer Leo Tolstoy in the Yasnaya Polyana Museum Estate in the Tula region
We want to demonstrate, publish and publish them, while maintaining the security level of his handwritten legacy. They need high-quality one-time digitization so that they can be reproduced and saved. I know that many theaters are making new productions based on various works by Tolstoy. Films will be shot.
— One of them was just rented by your youngest son's wife, Stasia Tolstaya.
— Yes, in my opinion, she made a wonderful, very modern, lively film adaptation of one of Tolstoy's early novels, Family Happiness. I also have a dream of making a big feature, multi-part biographical film about Tolstoy. If we can find the funds and resources for this, we will try to do it in time.
— What is the fate of Tolstoy's complete academic works? It has started to come out, but what are the next stages and deadlines?
— Unfortunately, there is not much to brag about here, because the work is very slow. The complete academic 90-volume collection of Tolstoy's works has been collected for 30 years. There are no analogues to it, there is no better one either. In the 1990s, the idea was to publish Lev Nikolaevich in 100 volumes. Lydia Dmitrievna Opulskaya-Gromova was at the head of this work. Unfortunately, she has been dead for a long time. She was the engine of this work and headed the large Tolstoy group at the Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy
There is no such enthusiast now. The group has been preserved, it is working. Lidia Dmitrievna even managed to attract some money. Now I'm afraid there are no such creative forces. Perhaps in 2028 we will reboot and reassemble the team, which will be able to make a new complete collection of works.
— There are a number of aspects of Lev Nikolaevich's activities that are almost unknown in popular culture. Although it would seem impossible to understand Tolstoy without them. For example, his journalism, polemics with the church, and the spread of religious ideas in Europe. What will be done to popularize them?
— I would like to show all this in this big biographical film. It will definitely be impossible to pass by his work "On Hunger." In fact, this is one of the first manifestations of the charitable work that the writer conducted, really saving tens of thousands of people from imminent death.
The world cinema turned to the late Tolstoy to a greater extent, at the time of his departure and death. And it's important for me to show the formation of his personality. Few people know that he was orphaned early. His mother died when he was one and a half years old, his father passed away when he was not 10 years old. Yes, there were guardians, but in general it's almost an orphan childhood. To understand Tolstoy of the late period, you need to go all the way with him, to love him the way he was in childhood, adolescence, youth, youth. My task is to simply, without embellishment and gloss, show the honest path of its formation.
— And who could make this series?
— It's too early to talk about it yet. We are currently actively working on the scripts. I wrote the literary basis of his biographical canvas myself, and professionals make a working screenplay out of it. Of course, we are looking closely at the directors and actors, but until they are approved, it is premature to speak.
— Do you want to see a famous actor in the role of Lev Nikolaevich, or vice versa, so that it would be a new face?
— Obviously, there will be several of them, including children. The most important thing for me is to find someone who would convey Tolstoy's eyes. He had a very special look — radiant, clear, at the same time piercing, penetrating and at the same time gentle, loving, enveloping. We will search, watch, and try. We have already conducted quite a few children's trials. There are some similarities, but there is no exact hit yet.
— Two film adaptations of War and Peace are being prepared for release in 2027. One is handled by Sergey Ursulyak, and the other by Sarik Andreasyan. Did they consult with you?
— We have long-standing friendly relations with Sergey Vladimirovich Ursulyak. And when we meet, we always discuss his work. But no one has contacted Sarik. An important point: Tolstoy is the only world-class writer who gave up the rights to his works, handing them over to the people.
The Russian writer Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy
— How do you feel about interpretations and interpretations?
— It upsets and even annoys me when I see synopses or scenarios with fictional characters and events in Tolstoy's biography. He has such a bright, extraordinary, dramatic fate that I sincerely wonder why this is necessary. Yes, Tolstoy is a very autobiographical writer. He is present in almost every one of his works. But it is a mistake to identify him directly with the heroes. And distorting the facts is completely unacceptable.
"The Unified State Exam and the OGE in literature are complete nonsense"
— What part of Tolstoy's legacy contradicts modern legislation? For example, "Anna Karenina" describes a scene of betrayal, which potentially fits this formulation.
— The question itself is strange to me. I wouldn't touch the classics at all. And these are time-tested books that have been published for over 100 years. Yes, there were some attempts to censor Tolstoy during his lifetime. His early works were published with some notes, and his later works, in particular the Kreutzer Sonata, were censored. I'm not even talking about his religious and philosophical treatises, which contradicted the tenets of the Orthodox Church. It was more or less clear to me when I was alive, but fighting windmills after 100-150 years is at least strange.
— While some people are struggling with literature, others are reading it less and less. Teachers are sounding the alarm: the language of the zoomers is getting scarce, and they get to know the novels of writers only through film adaptations. Do you see a problem with young people not understanding a word at some point?
— On the one hand, I have long been watching with sadness the metamorphosis of our education, in particular the teaching of Russian language and literature. The school itself was gradually moving towards primitivization. They abandoned the classical Russian pre-revolutionary education, the wonderful Soviet education, when elementary school children studied a huge amount of poetry, engaged in exposition and retelling.
It is clear that today, just one click on the phone is enough for an artificial intelligence to write any essay. Technical capabilities have simplified the students' approach. And the Unified State Exam and the OGE in literature are complete nonsense. It takes about 300 words to write, but the students can't do it. Of course, this makes it formal to study literature. But there are teachers who love their subject and make students fall in love with it.
By the way, this is the Tolstoy principle of pedagogy: not to stuff a student's head with knowledge, but to arouse his interest in knowledge. I can't imagine my life without books and I read more than 100 novels every year. This is one of the greatest joys for me. And I wouldn't trade it for anything. From my point of view, short messages, Twitter, tiktoks are boring and primitive.
Moreover, I observe that excellent teachers have been preserved in the provinces, in some rural schools. These are especially the teachers of the older generation. I have a favorite project, the Valentin Kurbatov School of Criticism. He made me happy because I managed to find a lot of bright, capable, intelligent, thinking young people. And there are very young ones, born in 2006. They love and know how to read, reflect, watch movies and analyze, and reason about the content. Many study in Moscow or St. Petersburg educational institutions, but grew up in the countryside. At some point, I also thought that everything was gone. But there are such people, you just need to be able to find them. And we succeed.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
