The railway station nearest to the Yasnaya Polyana estate is located at Kozlova Zaseka (zaseka meaning abatis) that was part of the fortifications on the southern border of Russia in the 16th and 17th centuries. There are several versions of the origin of this zaseka’s name, but most likely it comes from the name of a local voivode Danila Kozlov.
In 1860s the Moscow-Kursk railway was being constructed; in 1864 the station of Kozlova Zaseka was opened on its Tula section. Initially it was considered a substation.
Some long-distance trains going to the south stopped here, as did suburban trains in the summer. Many of Tolstoy’s guests arrived at this station and then went on to the writer’s estate. The Tolstoys often came to the station to meet their guests, and it was here that they received their mail.
“I am waiting for your letter, my dear, with great anticipation,” Tolstoy’s wife Sophia wrote to her husband, “and I am going for it to Kozlovka at 5 o’clock.”It was a small station; the station building was only 51 square meters. In it were the offices of the station master and his deputy, a ticket-office, a post-office, and a waiting room for passengers. Later a number of extensions were added, which accommodated living quarters, a train service office, and a boiler room. The building had furnace.
Specifying his address, Tolstoy always put it like this: “Tula Province, Tula District, Kozlova Zaseka Station.”heating. In 1902, on the station grounds a luggage room, a toilet and a kerosene depository were built, and a wooden platform and island platform were constructed.
When Tolstoy and his family went to Moscow, they also generally left from Kozlova Zaseka. Leo Tolstoy left from this station for the last time when he headed for Kochety (the estate of his eldest daughter Tatiana) on the 15th of August 1910.
Kozlova Zaseka also witnessed the tragic events of November 1910. It is here that the coffin with Leo Tolstoy’s body was brought from the station of Astapovo on the 9th of November at 6.30 a.m.
In 2001, the station was given back its historic name. On the initiative of the Moscow railway administration, reconstruction works were carried out restoring the station as it was in Leo Tolstoy’s time.In 1928, the centennial of Tolstoy’s birth, the station of Kozlova Zaseka was renamed Yasnaya Polyana. In 1974, the station got the status of a cultural heritage object under state guardianship.
The exhibition "Railway of Leo Tolstoy" can be seen in the old station building.