Count Fyodor Ivanovich Tolstoy (; 17 February 1782 – 5 November 1846), also known as "the American", was a Russian nobleman from the well-known Tolstoy family. Possessed of an unusual temper, he became famous for his gambling, his passion for duels, and his supposed voyage to North America, from which he earned his nickname. He was acquainted with many famous authors of his period and served as a prototype for some of the characters in their works.
Life Childhood and youth Tolstoy was one of seven children of Count Ivan Andreyevich Tolstoy (1747–1811) and his wife Anna Fyodorovna, who came from the Maikov family. Fyodor Tolstoy's place of birth is not known for certain; most likely he was born on the ancestral estate of the Tolstoys near Kologriv.kologriv.com
Despite their high rank, the Tolstoys were at that time relatively poor, the result of a conflict with the authorities in the eighteenth century in which several members of the family were exiled or deprived of property. In order to ensure worthy careers for their sons, it was common in the Tolstoy family to send them to military schools. Thus, Fyodor Tolstoy, along with both his brothers, were educated at the Naval Cadet Corps in Saint Petersburg.
While still a boy Tolstoy possessed, according to the memoirs of his contemporaries,S. L. Tolstoy, 1926 an uncommon physical strength, endurance, and dexterity, which fulfilled the necessary prerequisites for a successful military career. At the same time, he already had an unpredictable, even cruel personality. In the cadet corps he mastered shooting and fencing, which made him an extremely dangerous opponent in duels. Upon finishing school Tolstoy went into service not in the navy, but in the elite Preobrazhensky regiment, perhaps owing to the assistance of influential relatives.
His comrades at that time, among others, the future literary critic Faddei Bulgarin,Faddei Bulgarin, Воспоминания, vol 5, Saint Petersburg, 1848 described Tolstoy as an excellent shooter and a brave fighter. According to their memoirs, he had an energetic and passionate personality, but while fighting he was cool and resolute. His "wild" character, along with his taste for women and card games, gave him frequent cause for arguments with his comrades and higher officers that often ended in a violation of discipline. Moreover, Tolstoy was very rancorous and vengeful towards those who happened to anger him.
Among the nobility of early nineteenth-century Russia, excessive bravery and a deliberate search for dangerous adventures was widespread and highly valued, not only on the front, but also in daily life. As a result, duels remained very popular during this period and often arose out of the smallest arguments. This societal influence, as well as the individual traits of Tolstoy's character, explains his enthusiasm for duels. In 1799, at the age of 17, he fought his first duel with an officer who had reprimanded him for a violation of discipline. The details of this duel are unknown. There are also no reliable witnesses as to Tolstoy's punishment; several memoirs allege that he was demoted to the rank of a soldier, but other sources contradict this information.
World tour In 1803 Tolstoy went on a circumnavigation of the world as a member of the sloop Nadezhda ("Hope"), captained by Adam Johann von Krusenstern. This was the first circumnavigation of the world made by a ship under a Russian flag. How Tolstoy, who did not serve in the navy, came to be aboard the ship is unknown. Marya Kamenskaya, the daughter of his cousin, the subsequently famous artist Fyodor Petrovich Tolstoy, writes in her memoirsМемуары Марьи Каменской [Memoirs of Marya Kamenskaya], 1894 that Tolstoy in this way cleverly avoided punishment in the Preobrazhensky regiment. According to Kamenskaya, he posed as his cousin and namesake, who was on the crew of the ship but who did not wish to sail because he suffered from seasickness.
The ship Nadezhda, as well as the accompanying sloop Neva under the command of Yuri Lisyansky, set sail in August 1803 from Kronstadt. In addition to its exploratory goals, the expedition was also meant to help establish diplomatic and economic relations between Russia and Japan, for which the party included a large diplomatic delegation headed by Nikolai Rezanov. Nadezhda took a route across the Baltic Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, past the Canary Islands and Brazil, after which the ship rounded Cape Horn and set across the Pacific Ocean towards Japan, making stops at the Marquesas and the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands, and also at Kamchatka. After visiting Japan, Nadezhda and Neva set off towards Sitka, Alaska, sailed past China and Macao on the Indian Ocean, then rounded Africa and came back across the Baltic Sea to Kronstadt. The voyage lasted a total of more than three years, from August 7, 1803, to August 19, 1806.
Tolstoy's behavior on board, where he was unencumbered by official duties, was very unpredictable. He often provoked quarrels with other members of the team, including the captain himself. In addition, Tolstoy permitted himself some japes when addressing members of the crew that he did not like: for example, once he intoxicated the priest accompanying the Neva, and when the latter lay unconscious drunk on the floor, Tolstoy stuck his beard to the deck boards with sealing wax. When the priest came to, he was obliged to cut off his beard to free himself. On another occasion, when Krusenstern was gone from his cabin, Tolstoy sneaked into his cabin with a ship's pet, an orangutan that Tolstoy had bought while the ship was moored on an island in the Pacific Ocean. He took Krusenstern's logbook, put a blank sheet of paper on top and began to show the ape how to cover the paper with ink. Then he left the orangutan alone in the cabin, who went on drawing on the notebook. When Krusenstern returned, all his records had already been destroyed.
Similar behavior more than once caused Tolstoy to be put under arrest. Finally, Krusenstern lost patience and abandoned the passenger during a stop at Kamchatka. Further details of Tolstoy's travels are known only through his own not always credible accounts. From Kamchatka Tolstoy reportedly managed to get to one of the Aleutian Islands or to Sitka island, where he spent several months among Alaskan natives of the Tlingit tribe. He acquired multiple tattoos, which he later displayed with pride to curious acquaintances. The afore-mentioned orangutan, which was left on land with Tolstoy and whose later fate is unknown, gave rise to a great deal of gossip in aristocratic circles. According to one of the rumors, during his stay in Kamchatka, Tolstoy lived together with the ape; according to others, he ate it.
At any rate, Tolstoy's return to European Russia via the Far East, Siberia, the Urals and the Volga Region, was probably full of adventures, the details of which only Tolstoy knew. According to his accounts, a merchant ship picked him up in Alaska and dropped him off at Petropavlovsk, from where Tolstoy wound his way overland to Petersburg on carts, on sleighs, and partly on foot. One of the few written testimonies of this odyssey is found in the "Notes" of the writer Philip Vigel, which only resurfaced in 1892. Vigel, who traveled around Russia at the beginning of the nineteenth century to study Russian daily life, met Tolstoy in Udmurtia and described this episode in the following way: "At one of the stations we were surprised to see an officer approach us in a uniform of the Preobrazhensky Corps. This was Count F. I. Tolstoy . . . . He was traveling around the world with Krusenstern and Rezanov, quarreled with all, drove all to quarrel, and as a dangerous person was put ashore at Kamchatka and made his way across land back to Petersburg. What hasn't been said about him . . . ."Filipp Vigel, Записки, Moscow: 1892
Tolstoy's voyage concluded with his arrival in Petersburg at the beginning of August 1805. Thanks to his adventures, which gave rise to much gossip in high society, the count acquired an almost legendary celebrity, as well as the lifelong nickname "the American", referring his stay in Russian America.
War
Immediately upon Tolstoy's arrival in Petersburg, he was greeted with new problems: he was arrested at the city gates and sent to the guardhouse. Moreover, a special ukase from Alexander I forbade him from entering the capital.
Tolstoy's scandalous past also disrupted his military career. He was demoted from the elite Preobrazhensky regiment to a post in the little-known Neishlott fortress, where he served from 1805 to 1808. Philippe Vigel wrote regarding this onerous period for Tolstoy: "the punishment was severe for the brave man, who had never seen battle, especially during a time when all Europe, from west to east, had broken out in war."
Only Tolstoy's friendship with the commander Mikhail Dolgorukov helped the count in the end to get a post as an aide-de-camp on the front during the recently begun Finnish War. There Tolstoy was in his element: he actively participated in the battles, including the battle of Idensalmi, in which Dolgorukov died. A while after, Tolstoy, risking his life, headed a reconnaissance detachment during an operation of the shores of the Gulf of Bothnia, thanks to which the corps under the command of General Michael Barclay de Tolly managed to cross the ice of the gulf and occupy the city of Umeå without casualties. These feats, which facilitated Russia's rapid victory, rehabilitated Tolstoy in the eyes of the command, and from 31 October 1808 he was allowed to serve in the Preobrazhensky Regiment as a lieutenant.
A few months later, however, Tolstoy fought two more duels. In the first of these he mortally wounded his comrade and captain, whom he himself had provoked by spreading sordid rumors about his sister. A few days later there followed a duel with the young ensign Naryshkin, who had asserted that Tolstoy had cheated him in a card game; Naryshkin challenged Tolstoy to a duel and was also killed. After this, Tolstoy was for several months confined to a guardhouse in the Vyborg fortress, and on 2 October 1811 he was dismissed from the army.
Less than a year afterwards, Tolstoy returned to the war, this time as a volunteer in the defense of Moscow during the French invasion of Russia. During the Battle of Borodino, he was severely wounded in the knee. On the recommendation of General Nikolai Rayevsky, who in a letter to Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov mentioned Tolstoy's bravery, Tolstoy received the Cross of St. George, fourth rank. Moreover, Tolstoy was once again rehabilitated and received the rank of colonel. At the end of the war he finally left the army and settled down in Moscow.
In Moscow From 1812 until his death Tolstoy lived most of his life in Moscow, in a house on Sivtsev Vrazhek lane. His notorious, almost heroic past earned him fame in the Moscow aristocratic circles, and Tolstoy took advantage of his celebrity. He regularly took part in noble gatherings and balls, and he himself organized several festive soirées and had a reputation as a refined gastronome. Owing to the erudition that he had gained in military school, he easily conversed with representatives of the creative intelligentsia, and became friends with many of them. Among his friends were the writers Evgeny Baratynsky, Vasily Zhukovsky, Aleksandr Griboyedov, Konstantin Batyushkov, Pyotr Vyazemsky, Denis Davydov, Nikolai Gogol, and Aleksandr Pushkin.
Card games and duels