Tatyana Sukhotina-Tolstaya

Countess Tatiana Lvovna Sukhotina-Tolstaya (; ; 4 October 1864 – 21 September 1950), was a Russian painter and memoirist. She was the second child and oldest daughter of writer Leo Tolstoy.

Biography Tatiana (known in her family as Tanya) was born and grew up at Yasnaya Polyana, her father's estate south of Tula.

She demonstrated an early love of painting, and in 1881 she entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where her teachers were Vasily Perov, Illarion Pryanishnikov, and Leonid Pasternak; she also studied with Nikolai Ge.

Devoted to her father and his ideals, she had rejected a number of suitors. In 1897, she fell in love with (1850—1914 ), although he was almost in his 50s and married with six children.

For several months Tatiana had a platonic friendship with Sukhotin, despite having misgivings. She first mentioned him in her diary on November 2, 1882.

Sukhotin's wife died later that year, and on 9 October, Tatiana announced her desire to marry Sukhotin to her father, who responded with a fiercely uncompromising rejection ("But why a pure girl should want to get mixed up in such a business is beyond me").

Tatiana gave in for the time being, but finally insisted, and on 14 November 1899 the couple were married. They lived on Sukhotin's estate, "Kochety" ("The Roosters") in Tula guberniya, about east of Orel.

On 19 November 1905, she gave birth at Yasnaya Polyana to her only child, a daughter also called Tatiana.

Her memoir, based on the journals she maintained from 1878 to 1932, was published in English in 1951 and French in 1953. Aside from excerpts in Novy Mir in 1973, her memoir was not published in Russian until 1976.

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