Tolstoy’s Personal Library and Manuscripts, Photo and Film Collection
Documentary heritage submitted by Russian Federation and recommended for inclusion in the Memory of the World Register in 2011.
Tolstoy was one of the greatest intellectuals of his time as demonstrated through the books of his personal library, a unique collection of books and periodicals, that numbers 22,000 volumes in 40 languages. It is one of the largest writer's libraries in the world and was founded by three generations of the Volkonskys-Tolstoys families: his grandfather Prince Nikolai Volkonsky, his parents Maria and Nikolai Tolstoy, but the greater part of the library was collected by Tolstoy himself. His collection of manuscripts, photos and films is a unique literary and historical archive which includes the manuscripts of the writer's works, diaries and notebooks, his correspondence, documents with his notes, his social activity, publications of his literary and drama works, memoirs, censor cases, works on Leo Tolstoy by his family members and close friends, documents related to his ancestors.