I Have Lost the Memory of Everything, Almost Everything That Has Been... How Can One Not Rejoice at the Loss of Memory?" (Reflections on Leo Tolstoy's Four Biographies in the ZhZL Series)

The research interest in the article is focused on Leo Tolstoy's four biographies in the Lives of Remarkable People (ZhZL) publishing series. The first lifetime biography appeared in 1894, and the last one in 2017. Emphasis is placed on the "public" biography, which reflects the specificity of time and the "public" opinion of the general reader. This biography includes both real and fictional components. It was written according to the laws of any creative work often with a mythological touch. The subject-matter of the study was the "mass" image of Tolstoy created by the biographers of the series. The image is analyzed through the prism of a specific ideologically loaded time that reflects the historical demand for a heroic image. The article consistently shows the transformation of this heroic image that occurs due to the change in the genre features of the biography, due to historical collisions and literary methods the biographers used, their attitudes to the public (ideological) and subjective (myth-making) reading of Tolstoy's biography. The change of genres is described: from biographical essays to popular scientific biographies. The relationship and features of the ZhZL series published by F.F. Pavlenkov and M. Gorky are shown. Each biography is constructed according to the author's methodology, becoming its peculiar "result". E.A. Solovyov relied on the biographical method, V.B. Shklovsky relied on the formal one, whereas A.M. Zverev and V.A. Tunimanov reconstructed Tolstoy's spiritual experiences through the analysis of his artistic images. P.V. Bassinsky created Tolstoy's biography maximally fictionalizing its facts and using the method of fiction. A special attention is paid to the time of the creation of Tolstoy's biographies in the ZhZL series. Apart from the pre-revolutionary edition, the publishing house addressed to Tolstoy at the critical moments of history: the Thaw, the Perestroika, and in our time. Tolstoy was always in demand during the periods of spiritual crises and the devaluation of values. Telling about Tolstoy, his biographers tried to speak "through" him about their times, about their worship of the intelligentsia. At each turn of history, Tolstoy turned out to be a "mirror" of the Russian, Soviet and post-Soviet intelligentsia. Tolstoy was both a conscience, a great writer and thinker, a citizen, and even a "trivial little man". All the biographies have a common tendency to idealize and, at the same time, to mythologize his image. Tolstoy's four biographies turned out to be not only the representatives of the public and social time and taste, but also a kind of their reflection for more than a century. One should not compare which biography is better or worse. Each, in its own way, is unique and informative. And it is not just a question of genre, facts, methods or ways of analysis, but a question of the ability to speak about the eternal through the prism of the time, to reveal the universal through facts, opinions, interests, and language accessible to society. The ZhZL series is a unique edition that demonstrates not only a certain level of development of society, but also allows us to understand social interests and needs in a particular historical layer.

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