The brilliant storyteller Ivan Tolstoy

We are all readers. Each of us has at least one book, but read it. And that's fine. Because writing creativity has one amazing quality - it is not just a collection of information and information about historical realities or human relationships, it is something more. Reading, we find ourselves in that time, understand and justify many things, remember the relationships between people.

The work touches our inner world, our soul. Do we often understand what is written about? For what purpose? What did the author want to say by describing these events? But there are people who raise these acute, often painful questions: are the assessments of creativity fair, are deservedly forgotten or elevated to this or that cultural figure. Literature historians, such as Tolstoy Ivan Nikitich, help us answer all questions.

Ivan Nikitich and his family

On January 21, 1958 Tolstoy Ivan Nikitich was born in Leningrad. The family in which he was born is known to everyone. Ivan Nikitich is the grandson of the famous writer A. Tolstoy on his father's line. On the part of the mother, Lozinskaya Natalia Mikhailovna, is the grandson of the poet Lozinsky, MI. The father is a Soviet physicist, professor Tolstoy NA Brother Mikhail is also a physicist, Natalia and Tatiana are writers.

In 1975 he graduated from the school and entered the medical institute. He studied for three years, during which he was expelled twice from him. As Ivan Nikitich says, when he was expelled for the first time and restored, he realized that this would necessarily happen again, since he did not want to study there. To see the "grandfather" genes affected, the medicine did not interest him. One day his wife told him that if you like philology, you have to be a philologist. So he entered the faculty of the Leningrad University.

Passion for the history of emigration

He studied in absentia, because he worked as a guide in the Pushkin Mountains. Even then he was worried about the topic of emigration. And somehow he saw in Pushkin's cabinet forbidden to issue volume Nabokov "Commentary on the novel" Eugene Onegin ", persuaded the authorities to give these books to him. They were in English, and in return Ivan Nikitich Tolstoy promised to translate it into Russian for employees.

He translated the Nabokov commentary for a long time, it was time to defend the diploma. He told the teacher that he would like to prepare this topic for the diploma. To which he replied that Nabokov's name should not be pronounced in a Soviet university, we must look for a different topic. I had to postpone the thesis for a short time. After graduation, he taught Russian language and literature in high school.

Thaw and first publications

All this time I studied archives, accessible literature and wrote articles. I really wanted to be printed at 21, Ivan Tolstoy remembers. But knowing about his enthusiasm for emigrant literature, not a single publication dared to publish his materials. And at 25 he was even banned from printing. Calmed himself with the fact that it is not forever. So it happened. In 1986, the ban was lifted, and the attitude towards Nabokov in the country was gradually warming. And in 1987 Ivan Nikitich had his first publications.

At the same time, he teaches at the Polygraphic and Humanitarian Institutes. In 1994 he leads special courses on Nabokov at the university. He worked as an editor of the magazine Zvezda, a proofreader in the journal Russian thought. He specializes in emigre literature and history, in the literature of the Cold War period.

Literary Creativity

In 1992 Ivan Nikitich Tolstoy was the editor-in-chief of the publishing house Tobias Grzhebina. Publishes the books of authors forced to be in emigration, as well as works dedicated to emigrants and their lives abroad. Since 1994, he is the editor-in-chief of the journal Experiments. Published more than 500 of his reviews, articles and reviews. The author of the books "The Italic of the Epoch", "Zhivago's Writed Novel."

Labor everyday life of a journalist

Since 1988, Ivan Tolstoy works as a journalist (freelancer) on Radio Liberty. At the end of 1994 the company invites him to the staff. Since 1995, he lives and works in Prague. From the words of Ivan Nikitich, there is excellent work. No one imposes anything, does not force to cover some topics and does not determine what programs to do. Themes he chooses himself. Their life prompts them, says Ivan Tolstoy, whose biography can itself serve as an interesting and fascinating talk about the famous family of Count Tolstoy.

Ivan Nikitich is not only a master of wonderful stories to tell - vividly, figuratively, brightly. But they are a great master to find them. He works a lot with archives, from his words, it's very exciting, sometimes unexpected things appear that explain a lot of the life of emigration. If you know and imagine the context, then on a historical background a surprisingly interesting picture emerges. This is exactly what the historian should do. Ivan Tolstoy is studying the materials of yesterday, which inevitably leads to today's day.

Travels of Ivan Tolstoy

Ivan Nikitich never thinks of anything. All his stories are based only on facts. It's just important to combine the facts skillfully in a single whole - in history. Compare these facts. When we compare, we get an interesting story. The only task, says Ivan Tolstoy, is to make the historical story so fascinating that it not only could be listened to. But everyone was able to understand why this happened, what is the connection between this or that event.

A unique researcher, he finds stunningly interesting stories for his readers and listeners. Ivan Nikitich - the host of programs, including "Myths and Reputation". The author of the series "Radio Liberty. Half a century on the air. " The author and presenter of Ivan Tolstoy's Historical Travels and Heritage Keepers on the Culture channel.

In his programs absolutely unexpected stories about people, works, events are opened. A connoisseur of Russian culture, a brilliant narrator and an incredibly erudite man. He simply fascinates with his travels - in literature, in time.