Alexandra Tolstaya

Alexandra Lvovna Tolstaya

Alexandra with her father
Born (1884-07-18)18 July 1884
Yasnaya Polyana, Russia
Died 26 September 1979(1979-09-26) (aged 95)
Valley Cottage, New York, USA
Parent(s) Leo Tolstoy
Countess Sophia Andreyevna Behrs

Countess Alexandra (Sasha) Lvovna Tolstaya (Russian: Александра Львовна Толстая; 18 July 1884 – 26 September 1979) was the youngest daughter and secretary of the noted Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy.[1][2][3]

Although Alexandra Lvovna shared with her father the doctrine of non-violence, she felt it was her duty to take part in the events of World War I. For her courage, the Russian government awarded her three St George Medals and the rank of colonel.

The Bolsheviks imprisoned Alexandra in 1920, but she was installed as the director of the Tolstoy museum in Yasnaya Polyana the next year. She left the Soviet Union in 1929, and settled in the United States, where she founded the Tolstoy Foundation. She became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1941.[4]

In later years, she helped many Russian intellectuals (notably Vladimir Nabokov and Sergei Rachmaninoff) to escape Bolshevik persecution and to settle in America.

References

  1. "Alexandra Lvovna Tolstaya Biography". Retrieved 28 March 2013.
  2. "Alexandra Tolstaya Biography". Retrieved 28 March 2013.
  3. "The Tolstoys". Archived from the original on 11 February 2015. Retrieved 28 March 2013.
  4. Deseret News, 2 July 1974 p. 2A.

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Notes


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