Tolstoy heirs flock to reunion

Tolstoy tried to create an idealised rural existence

By Steven Eke BBC Eurasia analyst

A train carrying 90 descendants of the great Russian writer, Leo Tolstoy, has arrived at his former country estate to the south of Moscow.

Having travelled from all over Europe and the United States, they are marking the 150th anniversary of the publication of Tolstoy's first story.

Tolstoy - best known abroad for his epic novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina - was one of Russia's great thinkers and social reformers of the 19th Century.

His works continue to have resonance in modern-day Russia, where many intellectuals lament the disappearance of big ideas from Russian life.

Tolstoy's descendants are spread far and wide.

Some are obscure, of apparently modest origins. Others are members of Europe's royal families.

Social vision

The reunion - the largest ever of its kind - is taking place on Tolstoy's country estate of Yasnaya Polyana, which was turned into a literary museum during the Soviet period.

Tolstoy: One of Russia's great 19th Century thinkers

The star guest is Tolstoy's granddaughter, who is now 87 years old and lives in Sweden.

The estate's director - who is himself Tolstoy's great-great-grandson - says he wants the estate to continue bringing Tolstoy's descendants together to celebrate the writer's legacy to Russia.

He has arranged a week of events, recreating scenes from Tolstoy's life.

They reflect the type of idealised rural existence Tolstoy tried to create on the estate during the second half of the 19th century - haymaking, berry gathering, hunting and open-air family gatherings.

After a period of youthful debauchery, Leo Tolstoy dedicated his life to developing a philosophy of what Russia should be.

A critic of Tsarist autocracy and, later, Marxism, his quest led him to believe that spirituality was the best solution to Russia's ills. It is a sentiment many modern-day Russians might agree with.

Russia has arguably become a more predictable, understandable country.

But after the death of Communism, no great inspiration, political or social ideas underpin the Russian state or the Russian Government.

A major cause, say many Russian intellectuals, of the country's seemingly intractable social problems.