The man who served Leo Tolstoy as the inspiration for the character of Count Vronsky in the novel "Anna Karenina", after only 16 days in Serbia, entered our history.
In 1876, Serbia was at war with the Turks. Numerous volunteers from abroad came to help the Serbs, mostly from Russia. Among them was a 30-year-old Russian colonel Nikolai Nikolayevich Rajevski, a descendant of a famous Russian noble family and the grandson of General Rajevski who led the Russian army against Napoleon's invasion.
According to "Anna Karenina", the most translated novel in world literature, after his mistress Karenina threw herself under a train, Count Vronsky volunteered and went to war in Serbia. Tolstoy thus ends the story, and the life of Nikolai Rajevski ended with his death in a battle with the Turks on August 20, 1876, near the village of Gornji Androvac, not far from Aleksinac.
Folk legend says that just a few minutes before his death, Rajevski had lunch, drank wine and, leaving for the position, said: "If I die, leave my heart in Serbia and transfer my body to Russia."
Generations and generations of Serbs have read the works of the masterful Russian writer Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy. Rarely has anyone not read his most famous work "Anna Karenina". However, a small number of people know about the greatest connection between this novel and Serbia. In the heart of Serbia, a few kilometers from Aleksinac, is the village of Gornji Adrovac, which houses the Church of the Holy Trinity, popularly known as the "Russian Church". In its gate, there is a memorial to the bent Russian colonel Nikolai Rajevski. All this would be quite simple, if we overlook the fact that Colonel Rajevski served Tolstoy as an inspiration for the character of Count Vronsky in the work "Anna Karenina".
I was able to see the story on television of the life of Anna Karenina. It is a very interesting story that you have written.