London
(ANI):
Dame
Helen
Mirren,
who
recently
starred
as
Leo
Tolstoy"s
wife
Sofya
in
the
flick
The
Last
Station,
has
found
herself
closer
to
the
role
than
she
actually
thought.
The
stepson
of
a
distant
cousin
of
Dame
Helen
married
Sofya
and
Leo"s
second
child
Tanya,
according
to
Russian
historian
Mikhail
Mayorov.
Mayorov
said
the
relationship
between
the
stepson,
Mikhail
Sukhotin,
and
Tanya
Tolstoy
caused
a
scandal
similar
to
those
in
her
father"s
novels
Anna
Karenina
and
War
And
Peace,
reports
the
Daily
Express.
Sukhotin,
a
married
father
of
six,
was
20
years
Tanya"s
senior.
When
Sukhotin"s
wife
died,
Tolstoy
did
not
allow
Tanya
to
marry
him.
In
1899,
when
she
was
33,
he
gave
in
but
wept
in
the
horse-drawn
carriage
as
he
took
her
to
the
wedding.
Also,
Tolstoy"s
only
known
piece
of
music,
an
unnamed
waltz,
dating
from
1849,
was
co-written
with
Kirill
Zybin,
a
distant
relative
of
Dame
Helen,
64.
Dame
Helen"s
grandpa
Pyotr
was
a
tsarist
officer
in
London
when
the
Bolsheviks
came
to
power.
He
did
not
go
back
to
Russia
and
started
driving
a
cab.
One
of
her
Russian
cousins
Anastasia
Muromskaya,
18,
a
mathematics
student,
said:
“We
are
so
proud
that
Helen
is
playing
this
role.
She
carries
the
Russian
soul."