From 26 February 2026, the ROSPHOTO State Museum and Exhibition Centre in St. Petersburg presents the exhibition Sophia Tolstaya – Photographer: The Countess Shoots with a Kodak. The exhibition was organized by the Yasnaya Polyana Museum-Estate in collaboration with the State Leo Tolstoy Museum in Moscow.
The exhibition explores the creative legacy of Sofya Andreyevna Tolstaya, the wife of Leo Tolstoy, presenting her as a multifaceted artistic personality. The display includes an extensive collection of original photographs taken by Countess Tolstaya from the collections of the Yasnaya Polyana Museum-Estate and the Moscow Tolstoy Museum.
Throughout most of Leo Tolstoy’s life, photographs of the writer were taken by professional photographers, photojournalists, friends, acquaintances, and family members. Among the well-known masters who photographed Tolstoy—such as Sergey Levitsky, Mikhail Tulinov, and Karl Bulla—one might also include Countess Sophia Tolstaya herself, an indefatigable and original amateur photographer.
Sophia earliest photographs date from 1887, the year she purchased a Kodak camera. However, she began to pursue photography systematically somewhat later, in 1895, after the death of her youngest son. A special place in her photographic collection is occupied by images of her husband taken on the anniversaries of their wedding. Particularly noteworthy are photographs documenting family life: birthdays, farewells to grown-up children, and visits from guests. Sophia also loved photographing her favorite places in Yasnaya Polyana.
“I took my camera and ran everywhere, photographing nature, my grandchildren, Lev Nikolaevich with his sister, the forest, the bathing road—and all the dear Yasnaya Polyana landscape,” she wrote in her diary in September 1898.
The exhibition features more than 150 original photographic prints by Sophia Tolstaya. Visitors will also see the album From the Life of L. N. Tolstoy: Photographs Exclusively by Countess S. A. Tolstaya, published by the countess in 1911 to raise funds for peasants from villages near Yasnaya Polyana whose homes had been destroyed by fire. Visitors to ROSPHOTO will have the opportunity to view all 113 photographs from this album, preserved in the collections of the Yasnaya Polyana Museum-Estate.
The exhibition is complemented by sculptural portraits of Sophia and Leo Tolstoy created by Naum Aronson and Ilya Ginzburg, from the collections of the State Leo Tolstoy Museum.
Sofya Tolstaya’s photographic archive is unique in many respects: in the number of images it contains (more than 1,000 photographs), in its subject matter, and in the significant period it covers—more than twenty years. Her photographs can be seen as a visual chronicle of the final decades in the life of the great Russian writer.
The exhibition explores the creative legacy of Sofya Andreyevna Tolstaya, the wife of Leo Tolstoy, presenting her as a multifaceted artistic personality. The display includes an extensive collection of original photographs taken by Countess Tolstaya from the collections of the Yasnaya Polyana Museum-Estate and the Moscow Tolstoy Museum.
Throughout most of Leo Tolstoy’s life, photographs of the writer were taken by professional photographers, photojournalists, friends, acquaintances, and family members. Among the well-known masters who photographed Tolstoy—such as Sergey Levitsky, Mikhail Tulinov, and Karl Bulla—one might also include Countess Sophia Tolstaya herself, an indefatigable and original amateur photographer.
Sophia earliest photographs date from 1887, the year she purchased a Kodak camera. However, she began to pursue photography systematically somewhat later, in 1895, after the death of her youngest son. A special place in her photographic collection is occupied by images of her husband taken on the anniversaries of their wedding. Particularly noteworthy are photographs documenting family life: birthdays, farewells to grown-up children, and visits from guests. Sophia also loved photographing her favorite places in Yasnaya Polyana.
“I took my camera and ran everywhere, photographing nature, my grandchildren, Lev Nikolaevich with his sister, the forest, the bathing road—and all the dear Yasnaya Polyana landscape,” she wrote in her diary in September 1898.
The exhibition features more than 150 original photographic prints by Sophia Tolstaya. Visitors will also see the album From the Life of L. N. Tolstoy: Photographs Exclusively by Countess S. A. Tolstaya, published by the countess in 1911 to raise funds for peasants from villages near Yasnaya Polyana whose homes had been destroyed by fire. Visitors to ROSPHOTO will have the opportunity to view all 113 photographs from this album, preserved in the collections of the Yasnaya Polyana Museum-Estate.
The exhibition is complemented by sculptural portraits of Sophia and Leo Tolstoy created by Naum Aronson and Ilya Ginzburg, from the collections of the State Leo Tolstoy Museum.
Sofya Tolstaya’s photographic archive is unique in many respects: in the number of images it contains (more than 1,000 photographs), in its subject matter, and in the significant period it covers—more than twenty years. Her photographs can be seen as a visual chronicle of the final decades in the life of the great Russian writer.
Posted : 16 february 2026