For a long time, I did not live my own life and follow my own will, but rather as the wife of Tolstoy. On September 23, 1862, the eighteen-year-old Sofya Andreyevna Behrs married Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy. At first, she dedicated her life entirely to the much older writer. She was the first reader and critic of his works, the mother of his many children, managed the estate, and took care of the finances. During that time of family happiness, Tolstoy's great novels "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina" were created, among others. After nearly two decades of marriage, Tolstoy increasingly engaged with religious and philosophical themes, questioning all the values of his previous life. He withdrew from his wife and family, leading to dramatic conflicts. Sofya Tolstaya stopped perceiving her husband's intellectual and literary life as her own.