Count N.A. Tolstoy in a cycle of essays of N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky «In the hustle and bustle of provincial life»

Abstract

The attention of the author of the article is focused on the cycle of essays by N. Garin-Mikhailovsky In the hustle and bustle of provincial life, the first and one of the key works that together make up the Samara text. Since Garins essays are biographical in nature, behind many of the characters depicted in them are historical figures, real faces. Displaying on the pages of essays representatives of the Samara society, the writer sought to show the brightest and most recognizable of them. One of such bright and recognizable characters, bred by Garin, is Proskurin, the district marshal of the nobility, depicting whom the writer retained several signs that make it possible to unmistakably determine which Samara citizens were behind this figure. Carefully analyzing the text of Garins essays and historical documents stored in the funds of the Central State Archive of the Samara Region, the author of the article discovers and proves that the prototype of Proskurin was the leader of the nobility of the Samara district, Count N.A. Tolstoy, the father of the writer A.N. Tolstoy. In conclusion, the article concludes that the portrait of Count Tolstoy, painted by N. Garin-Mikhailovsky, is valuable from several points of view both as a historical evidence of Samara at the end of the XIX century, and as a historical and literary document that clarifies some of the circumstances of the birth and life of the son of Proskurin-Tolstoy, the writer A.N.Tolstoy

Keywords

• n.g. garin-mikhailovsky
• «in the hustle and bustle of provincial life»
• count n.a. tolstoy
• marshal of the nobility
• prototype
• samara
• «samara text»