The best printing company in pre-revolutionary Russia was the Golike and Vilborg art book publishing partnership founded in St. Petersburg in 1903. Golike and Vilborg used the most advanced technology and the best equipment; they were awarded the official title of the Suppliers of the Court of His Imperial Majesty. This enterprise printed the famous photograph “Leo Tolstoy Tells His Grandchildren Sonechka and Ilyushka the Tale of Cucumbers”. Tolstoy enjoyed spending time with children: in winter they skated, went sledding, and skied together, and in summer they walked and picked flowers in the fields, mushrooms and berries in the forest, and each time Tolstoy told them interesting stories. Of all the stories, the children really liked the tale of cucumbers, which the writer told both in his youth and at a rather respectable age. The plot of this story was very simple. One boy found and ate seven cucumbers of different sizes ranging from the smallest to the largest one. Along the story, the author acted out what his character did and transferred his emotions. Tolstoy told this tale so skillfully that it was a pleasure to watch his facial expressions: it was as if he turned into this happy boy who found cucumbers and ate them with appetite.
On September 18, 1909, in the town of Krekshino, near Moscow, Tolstoy had just returned from a walk and was sitting on a long bench near the house. Sitting next to him were his grandchildren, brother and sister, the nine-year-old Sonechka and the seven-year-old Ilyushka. The photographer captured them when Tolstoy was showing his grandchildren what little cucumber the boy found. Ilyusha was looking at grandfather’s hands, trying to imagine what this cucumber he found was like, and Sonechka was watching his facial expressions with curiosity. “This morning, Chertkov took a photo of Lev Nikolayevich with Olga Konstantinovna’s children, Sonechka and Ilyushik, on a bench, while Lev Nikolayevich was telling them the tale about the cucumber” (Alexander Goldenweiser, “Near Tolstoy”).
Sonya and Ilya were the children of Andrey Lvovich Tolstoy and Olga Konstantinovna Diterichs. Until 1904, the family lived happily in the Toptykovo estate, not far from Yasnaya Polyana. Then Olga Konstantinovna left for England with her children and only in 1908 returned to Moscow and bought an apartment in Pomerantsev Lane. Tolstoy and his wife loved their grandchildren very much and wanted them to live next to them. Sonya and Ilya often came to Yasnaya Polyana.
