September 3, 1844
Sofia Bers, the future wife and custodian of Leo Tolstoy's legacy, was born.
Tanya, my daughter, once said: “How tired I am of being the daughter of a famous father!” And I, too, was so tired of being the wife of a famous husband!
Father, Andrey BersA physician at the Moscow court office, in his youth he served as a doctor to the Moscow noblewoman Varvara Turgeneva. He had a daughter with her—Sophia's half-sister and Ivan Turgenev's half-sister.
All life, with rare exceptions, is spent in desires and regrets
In 1856 he visited the Bersovs Lev Tolstoy. The writer remembered the sisters Liza and Sonya as "sweet girls." Their second meeting took place in August 1862, after which Tolstoy began visiting the Berses more often. He seemed to be in love with the elder sister. But he proposed to the younger. They were married in September. To be honest with his 18-year-old bride, Tolstoy gave her his diaries to read. They described a far from platonic passion for a peasant woman. To Aksinya Bazykina.
I think I'll kill myself with jealousy someday. "In love like never before!" And just a woman, fat, white, terribly
Sofia Tolstaya had the opportunity to meet Aksinya personally—the mother of Tolstoy's illegitimate son washed the floors of the manor house in Yasnaya Polyana. For the first 18 years, Sofia rarely left her husband's estate—pregnancies, childcare, and household chores. No friends or social life of her own. And—constant torment about her inadequacy for her husband.
I feel a little sorry for my youth, a little envious, and a lot bored.
She bore Tolstoy 13 children, 11 of whom she breastfed at her husband's insistence. Five died in childhood. In 1884, Tolstoy renounced his ownership rights and transferred all property and publishing affairs to his wife. In 1916, she completed the book "My Life" which included memories of 50+ years of married life.
Let people be lenient towards the one who, perhaps, from a young age, was unable to bear on her weak shoulders the high calling of being the wife of a genius and a great man.
She took her husband's death in 1910 very hard. During World War I, she helped refugees. She died in 1919.
