The focus of the exhibition is aimed at the initial period of writing the work, reflecting the evolution of the writer's self-awareness and attitude in the process of work, traces of which are preserved in the manuscript and the printed text. The exposition presents extensive materials from the collection of the State Museum of L.N. Tolstoy: photographs, graphics, paintings, sculpture, objects of decorative arts, manuscripts, diaries, notes, maps, printed publications of the time, demonstrating the difficult path of the text from the intention to the final publication, as well as the inexhaustible interest of researchers in manuscripts that have not seen the light, have been corrected or discarded.