TOLSTOY Alexey Nikolaevich (1882-1945), count, writer, publicist, public figure, fellow of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1939). He studied at еру St. Petersburg Technological Institute (1901-07, without receiving a degree). He started as a poet (Lyrics collection of poems, which imitated the poetry of the symbolists, published in St. Petersburg in 1907), but soon turned to prose (his first story The Old Tower was published in the Niva journal in 1908), which brought him success. His early works include: literary adaptation of folklore subjects in the Magpie Tales collection, 1910; stories based on the life of his native Samara province in the book Narratives and Stories, 1910, also known as Zavolzhye etc.). Tolstoy became an active member of the literary groups of St. Petersburg, frequented Ivanov's Wednesdays and contributed to various St. Petersburg periodicals. In 1913-16 he was in St. Petersburg - Petrograd on flying visits, relocated to Petrograd in 1923, and finally moved to Detskoe Selo in 1928. Among the visitors of his Wednesdays were V.Y. Shishkov, O.D. Forsh, B.A. Lavrenev, M.M. Zoschenko, P.E. Schegolev, K.S. Petrov-Vodkin, A.F. Ioffe among others. The works of Tolstoy are distinguished with a vast variety of themes and genres: while in Leningrad and Detskoe Selo, he wrote the science-fiction novel The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin (1925-26); the first two books of the novel Peter the Great (1930, 1934; the Stalin Prize of 1941), which was one of the most important works of Tolstoy, dedicated to the issues of Russian state system and historical progress, politically topical in the 1930s; The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Buratino, the fairy tale for children whose popularity never fades (1935) etc. The reality of St. Petersburg life is portrayed in many works of Tolstoy (trilogy The Road to Calvary, 1921-41; play The Conspiracy of the Empress, 1926, written together with Schegolev etc.). From 1938 he lived in Moscow. Tolstoy was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1943 and in 1946, posthumously. In 1907-10 he lived at 35 Tavricheskaya Street; in 1910-12 he resided at 147 Nevsky Prospect; in 1925-28 he lived at 3 Zhdanovka River Embankment; while in Detskoe Selo (Pushkin), in 1928-30 he lived at 8/13 Moskovskaya Street and at 6 Proletarskaya Street (present-day Tserkovnaya) in 1930-38. Tolstoy's name was attached to a boulevard in the town of Pushkin.

References: Воспоминания об А. Н. Толстом: Сб. М., 1982; Бунатян Г. Г. Город муз: Лит. памят. места г. Пушкина. СПб., 2001. С. 309-326; Петелин В. В. Жизнь Алексея Толстого: "Красный граф". М., 2001.

D. N. Cherdakov.