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Abstract:

The article examines the peculiar parallels and roll-overs in the destinies of L.N. Tolstoy and Archimandrite Leonid (Lev Kavelin) and outlines significant events in the life of the writer and theologian who went through a military school, who made foreign travels that were significant for their formation. Archimandrite Leonid, as well as Tolstoy, devoted a lot of their time to writing. The first wrote historical and theological works, essays, and the second, in his turn, wrote fiction, and later — publicistic articles and treatises, but it is natural to evaluate the roads of the famous contemporaries, taking into account their spiritual, moral, inner work. The author of the article pays special attention to the correspondence between the two Leos, their only and last meeting, as well as the possible use of the facts of Lev Kavelin’s biography by Tolstoy when creating the image of Father Sergiy. Roll calls in the fates of the writer and the archimandrite are a clear confirmation of the relevance of studying the interaction of secular and church writers, their possible, complex and multidirectional influence on each other.