Philosophical, Religious and Literary Transformation of Leo Tolstoy’s Short Story “A Seed as Big as a Hen’s Egg”

The article examines how L. N. Tolstoy, relying on a folklore source, created an independent work of fiction reflecting the key provisions of his religious, philosophical and aesthetic doctrine of the 1880. Special attention is paid to the mechanisms of poetic processing of the source text, including symbolic reorientation, structural shifts and a change in the genre nature of the short story. The analysis is based on the handwritten history of the work, including autographs and copies, as well as a comparison with the folk legend recorded by A. N. Afanasyev. The article analyzes in detail the artistic techniques, using which Leo Tolstoy reworked the folk legend in the short story “A seed as big as a hen’s egg:” he intensified the symbolic meaning of key images (in particular, grain), shifted the focus of the narrative from royal power to folk wisdom, introduced additional characters such as sages, and changed the structure, endowing it with the features of a philosophical parable, in which his socio-moral and religious beliefs are expressed. Special attention is paid to the title of the story and its role in the interpretative framework of the text. In the context of Tolstoy’s aesthetic views (“What is art?”, “So what should we do?”). The work is interpreted as a philosophical parable expressing utopian ideas about the “golden age,” the moral superiority of the people and criticism of social inequality. In the folk stories by Leo Tolstoy, artistic simplicity is combined with a deep philosophical content and an educational mission, which makes it possible to consider the short story “A seed as big as a hen’s egg” not only as a revision of folklore material, but also as an independent work with a pronounced author’s position. Despite its conceptual richness and important place in Tolstoy’s religious and philosophical system of views of the 1880s, the short story “A seed as big as a hen’s egg” still remains poorly understood in Russian literary criticism and requires a comprehensive poetic and textual analysis, taking into account its handwritten history, folklore sources and the aesthetic context of the epoch. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the comprehensive analysis of a short story, including textual and poetic aspects, as well as its connection with Tolstoy’s philosophical and economic ideas.