Leo Tolstoy’s future wife was from a family that was near and dear to the writer. When he came to Moscow, he often stayed with the Behrs. There were eight children in this family: three daughters and five sons. The young ladies of the family were beautiful, well-mannered and well-educated — each with their own distinct personality. The eldest, Lisa, was intelligent and well-read, Sophia was romantic and thoughtful, and the youngest, Tatiana, was lively and cheerful.
In August 1862, Lyubov Alexandrovna Behrs and her daughters were visiting Yasnaya Polyana. Suddenly, Sophia appeared before Tolstoy not as a young girl, but as an attractive young lady, and he rushed to confess his love to her. He was overwhelmed with emotion and wrote only the initial letters of the words with chalk on a card table. This scene was later recreated in the novel “Anna Karenina” when Levin confesses his love to Kitty.
Tolstoy’s diaries and letters were filled with emotions:
