Biography RAC World tour Japan Alaska California Sakhalin Return

They said about Count Tolstoy F. I. that…

Philipp Vigel

It was Count Fyodor Tolstoy, who had been so famous under the name of “American” before.

He made the round-the-world voyage with Krusenshtern & Rezanov, quarrelled with everyone, made the others fall out with each other. As a dangerous person he was put ashore in Kamchatka so he had to travel over the land to return to St. Petersburg. He was always in the public eye! His thick, black hair which was extremely curly by Nature, his eyes, the eyes of his which probably had turned red from heat & dust, seemed to us blood-shot. His almost melancholic looks and most gentle and low way of talking seemed a slough to my scared comrades.

F. Tolstoy spent with us for a little while. He was talking a lot about very trivial things, but his manner of speaking was so intelligent, that I felt sorry for his leaving us instead of going with us.

A. Pushkin’s epigram on F. Tolstoy

M. F. Kamenskaya, a niece of F. I. Tolstoy

On board the ship Fedor Tolstoy made up practical jokes. At first Krusenshtern shut his eyes to this, but later on he had to put him under arrest. But each case of punishment was later followed by some new pranks of his. He embroiled all the officers & sailors with each other, and he embroiled them very much. They could have stabbed each other with knives at any moment! Any disaster could strike while Fedor Tolstoy was rubbing his hands with pleasure. The ship priest, who was advanced in years, had a weakness for wine. Fedor Tolstoy had him drunk as a log and when the priest was lying on the deck dead drunk he sealed his beard to the floor with the sealing-wax using the official seal which he had stolen from Kruzenshtern. After he had done it, he was sitting nearby. When the priest woke up and wanted to get up, Fedor Tolstoy cried out: “Be quiet! Don’t even dare…Don’t you see, it’s a official seal!” Eventually they had to cut the priest’s beard up to his chin. There was a smart, deft and imitative orang-outang on board the ship. Once, when Krusenshtern sailed out somewhere on his boat, Tolstoy dragged the animal into his cabin, opened the note-book with his writings, put them on the table, then laid a sheet of clean, white, paper above it and began to pour ink onto the white sheet in front of the animal’s very eyes. The monkey was watching very attentively. Then Fedor Ivanovich removed the stained sheet of paper from the notes, put it into his pocket and went out of the cabin. Orang-outang having stayed alone, began to imitate Fyodor Ivanovich so zealously that in the end he completely spoiled all the notes of Krusenshtern.

Nikolai Petrovich Rezanov

Kruzenshtern made Tolstoy, Guards Second Lieutenant his friend. The latter was a person without any morals, who had respect neither to God nor to the power imposed by Him. This perverted young man is always picking up fights, insulting everyone all the time. He has a dirty mouth: uses foul language and scolds me without mercy. This is the state I was plunged into because of me infinite diligence to service.