Leo Tolstoy’s Writings for Young Children

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) was a Russian writer, philosopher, and social reformer, best known for his epic novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Born into nobility, he rejected his aristocratic upbringing to pursue a life dedicated to literature, education, and moral inquiry.Michael R. Katz was educated at Horace Mann School, Williams College, and Oxford University. He taught Russian literature at Williams, the University of Texas, and Middlebury College. He has published two monographs and has translated over twenty-five Russian novels into English, including works by Turgenev, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy.

“If children must grow up, let it be with the best moral models and the fewest adult vices dangling in front of their eyes. Thus taught Leo Tolstoy, one of the world’s great pedagogues. His four Russian Books for Reading, together with his ABC Book (a literacy primer), are probably the closest to a school curriculum that Tolstoy ever devised. As Michael Katz demonstrates in these wonderful (and wonderfully illustrated) translations, the stories—unlike some of Tolstoy’s later fiction—are not elegantly simplistic, their lessons not self-evident. That is because they are told from the perspective of the child, not their teacher. They emerge awkwardly and harmoniously from within the child’s own worldview, at once curious, hungry, acquisitive, loving, inventive, fearful. If we could grow down, we might again learn like this.” — Caryl Emerson, Princeton University“From Linda Torresin’s scholarly and well-organized introduction to the startling abundance of Tolstoy’s stories, 'discussions, ' and little histories for children, this book is a treasure. How extraordinary to learn of Tolstoy’s 1872 remark, 'Having completed the ABC book, I can die in peace.' Michael Katz’s translations possess sharp immediacy, capturing the perennial strangeness, sometimes downright weirdness, of Tolstoy’s renderings: adaptations, familiar fairy tales, and fables mingle with short stories, little biographies, and practical science explanations. Tolstoy’s ordering of his material is curious—for example, The Founding of Rome, God Sees the Truth but Waits to Speak, and a practical article on Crystals bundle together. As an added bonus, Jake Scott’s evocative illustrations leap off the page. Leo Tolstoy’s Writings for Young Children is for scholars, general readers, and parents everywhere who love to read to their children. Not to mention the children themselves. I can almost hear their questions now. “ — Robin Feuer Miller, Edytha Macy Gross Professor of Humanities, Professor of Russian and Comparative Literature, Brandeis University

• Introduction. Not only a Writer, but also an Educator: Leo Tolstoy, Children, and Pedagogical StoriesLinda Torresin, Università degli Studi di Padova Translator’s Preface and AcknowledgementsMichael R. Katz, Middlebury CollegeNew Azbuka: Selected StoriesFirst Russian Book for ReadingSecond Russian Book for ReadingThird Russian Book for ReadingFourth Russian Book for ReadingSelected Bibliography of Sources in English