During their summer in Russia, students get a chance to visit a number of culturally and historically significant locations. Yasnaya Polyana is the estate of world-renowned writer, Leo Tolstoy. Josh Maier put down a few of his thoughts on visiting the great writer’s estate.
Yasnaya Polyana is located about 188 kilometers south of Moscow and just outside of Tula. If you don’t know where Tula is, neither did any of us before going there, and most of us could not point to it on a map except through blind luck. That being said, the area of land in which Yasnaya Polyana sits is beautiful. Clean ponds and allergy inducing trees and plants combine to give something that our group has not had access to in Moscow: nature. For those of you who don’t know, Yasnaya Polyana is the estate of Leo Tolstoy, writer of many famous works such a War and Peace and Anna Karenina and is where he lived from his birth to his death. He was born on this estate and he was buried on this estate. All 11 of his children were born on the same couch on this estate. He wrote his books on that same couch for reasons that I cannot comprehend.
When Tolstoy came to be in charge of the estate, he started his quest to live his life simply. He still lived on a big estate, but he freed his serfs and that forced him and his family to do most of the work around the house. His quest to live a simpler life also extended to his death. He wanted to be buried in an unmarked grave in the woods without any religious symbols. To this day, that wish has been kept, and you can still visit his grave.
Of all the things that I saw on the estate, the grave is the thing that stuck with me the most. Here we have one of the most famous Russian authors, buried in an unmarked grave in the middle of the woods. He led a humble life, and I think that he wanted to remain humble in death. I think that he knew that you can’t bring your possessions with you after you die, and he wanted his death to reflect his humble life.
USA in Russia 2019 