Fed'ko Maria Viktorovna

Fed'ko Maria Viktorovna

Aug., 2025

death, meaning of life, self-discovery, Slavic mythology, good and evil.

In his works, L. N. Tolstoy repeatedly turned to the legacy of Russian culture and Slavic motifs. This is most vividly reflected in the middle and late periods of the writer's creativity. In the early period of Tolstoy's literary career, Slavic motifs are less frequent and not as evident as in his later works. This highlights the relevance of searching for Slavic themes in Tolstoy's early works. The article examines Slavic motifs and references to Russian folk heritage, as reflected in such works as the trilogy "Childhood. Boyhood. Youth," Tolstoy's military stories, the tale "Three Deaths," and the novella "Cossacks." The author identifies Slavic motifs in Tolstoy's early works, including the motif of death, the ethical norms of everyday life from Slavic legends, the protagonists’ search for the meaning of life and the path of self-discovery, motifs of disguise and transformation, archetypes of the mother of the damp earth and the nurturing land, as well as motifs of initiation and bravery. Ethical categories of death, the meaning of life, bravery, self-discovery, and initiation, reflected through the analysis of Tolstoy's early prose, are compared to similar categories in Slavic worldview and folklore.

© 2025, the Authors. Published by ISCCAC

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license