"The Inventory of the Orchard", compiled by Tolstoy’s mother, Maria, tells us what the Yasnaya Polyana orchards were like in the early 19 th century: 2 regular orchards with 8 wedges in each of them. In each wedge there were from twenty to forty apple trees of at least seven kinds, arranged according to their decorative peculiarities. All in all, there were 849 apple trees of 34 kinds enumerated in the "Inventory".

Leo Tolstoy himself began to lay out orchards at Yasnaya Polyana in the spring of 1863 - soon after he married. In his letters we find: “I would have never believed that married life can change anyone so much. I feel as if I were an apple tree, which used to grow with snags from the very ground and spread in all directions; but now life has clipped and trimmed it, and tied it up, and propped it up, so that it would let others grow and would itself be better rooted and would have an upright trunk. So am I growing; I don’t know if there will be any fruit and whether it will be any good, or I will dry up; but I do know I am growing properly.”

The area occupied by the orchards reached 40 hectares. Besides the kinds of apples mentioned in the "Inventory" more than 30 new varieties appeared.

Gorgeous and picturesque, the orchards added to the charm and beauty of the central part of the estate, and became a kind of “apple necklace” of its architectural ensemble. Every part of the orchard was given its own name: The Orchard in the Wedges Park, The Old Orchard, The Orchard behind the Volkonsky House, The Orchard by the Pond, The Red Orchard, The New Orchard.

The orchards of Yasnaya Polyana are quite unique. Old kinds of apples are still grown here, and they are kept unchanged for years. An apple you pick at Yasnaya Polyana today tastes exactly like the ones that were taken from the heavy branches of apple trees by our great-great-grandmothers.