Student Youth of Leo Tolstoy: Historiography of the Problem

The history of creating the Leo Tolstoy’s biography has more than 140 years. It was begun in 1870s. The last significant statement dated 2016. During this time, the tendencies and methodologies in research works, as well as the evaluation of certain events of the life of the writer of Kazan’s life, changed many times. Nevertheless, the qualitative systematization of the research works of this theme has never been carried out. In order to fill this gap and to determine the prospects for the development of the historiography of the topic under study, in this article we highlight key studies of the Kazan period of the life of Leo Tolstoy (1841-1847). The consistent mention of each significant work, built into the academic polemics of «Tolstoyans», forms an idea of the trends in the studies of the biography of Tolstoy the student.