Great-great-grandson of Leo Tolstoy Gennady Murigin came to Serbia recently to fulfill the testament of his ancestors: “You can see the world, but do not miss to see Serbia”.

Great-great-grandson of Leo Tolstoy Gennady Murigin

He brought in his memory all the best stories of his mother Anne and father Philip, the great-grandson of the famous Russian writer, who befriended the Serbian commanders, priests and many intellectuals whom fate had brought to the Imperial Russia after the First Serbian Uprising.
“I wanted at least once, just once, to breathe the air of my brotherly, heroic Serbia. I don’t know how long I will live, but I’m sure: I can now die peacefully”, said Gennady.

“But my heart is full and the time is short. If I’d last … well, as long as I last, it wouldn’t be enough to see all that I have long wanted. During the years, and you see I have them quite too many, the wish became more and more powerful. To kiss this piece of the planet, to take a clod of this soil. And now, to ask my descendants to vow to bury me with this clod”.

Gennady Murigin Ivanovich Tolstoy is the professor of the International Slavic Academy, author of dozens of publications and collections, a caring collector of historiographical notes about the centuries long bonds between the Serbian and the Russian people, especially important during the time of the Imperial Russia.

In addition, he is also a painter whose works can be seen in galleries in almost all world capitals. Gennady traveled back to Russia, but had previously visited the Temple of Saint Sava, the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and bowed to the Patriarch Pavle in the Monastery Rakovica.

Source: Meet the Serbs