The Image of the Forest as a Part of Eternal Nature in the System of L. N. Tolstoy’s Artistic and Philosophical Views

Aim. To analyze the various incarnations of the image of the forest with its folklore and mythological origins, which runs through the entire work of L. N. Tolstoy, reflects the originality of the author’s thinking, his philosophy of nature, ethics, social and practical experience, and is an important component of the national picture of the world created by the writer.Methodology. The methodological basis of the article was literary, cultural works, and documentary sources. The decisive ones are cultural-historical, descriptive-functional, biographical methods of interpreting the writer’s work.Results. Using the example of the stories “Cutting Wood”, “Three Deaths”, the story “Cossacks”, the epic “War and Peace”, the novel “Anna Karenina”, the story “Hadji Murat”, the story “Berry”, with the involvement of the Forestry Project, memoirs, diary entries, notebooks, business papers, epistolary, the semantic richness of the image of the forest as a natural element is demonstrated. Attention is focused on the high degree of generalization of the artistic image. The forest appears self-sufficient, multifaceted, ambiguous: it is an environment that conceals powerful energy, inaccessible to people, removed from them – and has a reviving influence on the human soul, introducing it to eternal beauty; a haven for the bearers of evil – and a victim; mysterious, sacred place; combination of dangerous and beneficial principles. Such diversity reflects the greatness of nature, the inexhaustibility of its manifestations, the ability to exert a spiritual influence on the human personality, to introduce it to eternity. The point of view is expressed that L. N. Tolstoy’s ideas about the role of the natural element of the forest in earthly existence, in the life of people, were close to his contemporaries Ostrovsky, Chekhov, and writers of the 20th century. Prishvin, Paustovsky, Leonov and several others. However, the artist remained open to the question of harmonizing the relationship between nature and culture, progress.Research implications. The results of the study can be used in studying issues related to the philosophy of nature and ethical views of L. N. Tolstoy, how the facts of the writer’s biography determine various moments of his work (afforestation activities and the image of the forest found in works of different years, letters), and also when considering ideological and aesthetic convergences in the development of the image of nature and the elements of the forest by L. N. Tolstoy and his contemporaries (Ostrovsky, Chekhov), prominent representatives of Russian literature of the 20th century (Prishvin, Paustovsky, Leonov, etc.).