In 1969, the Soviet artist Gleb Borisovich Smirnov painted “The Tree of the Poor”, depicting one of the memorable places in Yasnaya Polyana associated with the writer Leo Tolstoy.

Gleb Borisovich Smirnov was born into an artistic family. As a child he took up drawing, first under the guidance of his father, who was a talented artist and participated in exhibitions of the Wanderers, and afterwards he studied with Fyodor Ivanovich Rerberg. Having received a good art education, Gleb Borisovich began to teach, write fiction, paint pictures and take part in exhibitions. His paintings are currently included in the collections of art museums in Moscow (including the graphics collection of the Tretyakov Gallery), St. Petersburg, Donetsk, Bryansk, Dnepropetrovsk, Tula and other cities, museum reserves and literary museums of the Russian classical writers. Gleb Smirnov often visited places associated with the life and work of great Russian writers, depicting them in his paintings. In 1969, the artist visited Yasnaya Polyana and captured local sights in his works. In one of his paintings he depicted the most famous tree of the estate — the tree of the poor.

There was an elm near Leo Tolstoy’s house in Yasnaya Polyana throughout the writer’s life. It was impossible to imagine the estate without this tree — there was so much connected with it. The tree of the poor got its name for a reason. It grew near the porch, and there was a bench underneath. Visitors were sitting on that bench in the mornings while waiting for Leo Tolstoy. Most often they were beggars, sick people, wanderers, peasants or pilgrims. They all came for help or advice, they were the poor — hence the name. The writer was sitting on that very bench while talking with Gorky, Repin and other famous people of his time. There was a bell attached to the elm, which announced dinner or tea time for the family.

The tree of the poor was mighty and branchy, but hollow and crooked. In the late 1960s, the elm had significantly slowed down, and in 1970 not a single leaf appeared. The tree had completed its life cycle. It was decided to conserve it, and on November 20, 2017, on the date commemorating Tolstoy’s death, a new elm was planted in the place of the lost memorial tree.

The painting “The Tree of the Poor” belonged to the pianist Alexander Goldenweiser, who was Tolstoy’s friend and kept fond memories of the writer.