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Tolstoy in 1862 married an 18-year old girl named Sofya Andreyevna Behrs (1844-1919). For such a noted author, Tolstoy's large family is not well understood. They appear to have had an incredinble 19 children, but this is not definutive. We have seen some accounts of fewer children as "low" as 13. Andreyevna was not jyst a housewife and baby machine. She was an important influence in his writing. She inspired
him and seems to have fulfilled the adage that behind every great man is a woman. For Tolstoy, Sofya was that woman. Besides bearing his children, she also served as her husband's personal secretary. Inspired by his wife's youthfulness, her intellect ,and her beauty that for Tolstoy, the years between 1865 and 1877 are the those in which he wrote his greatest books. These are of course War and Peace and Anna Karenina (1873-79). She also offers many insights to historians concerning Tolstoy's work. After finishing War And Peace he decided to write a book on German philosophy. He apparantly dismissed Hegel and was taken by Schopenhauer. Andreyevna tells historians that Tolstoy eventually gave up his German philosophy project. Apparently the German gave him headaches.
Andreyevna took this photo in 1896 (figure 1). It shows her two daughters Maria and Alexandra with the farmers' children at Isnaia Poliana.
