The article considers the problem of psychology of literary creative work of L. N. Tolstoy; the main scientific and psychological approaches to the analysis of literary works. In the work of consistently carried out a theoretical analysis of psychology of creativity L. N. Tolstoy, an empirical study of social-psychological perceptions of student’s youth about the writer’s work. Identified the main components of «psychological realism» creativity L. N. Tolstoy, such as, «the dialectics of the soul», «stream of consciousness», «effect of presence» and other The most significant socio-psychological characteristics of his works student youth recognizes the different historical events of the wartime and peacetime, national peculiarities of the Russian people, human relationships, which are important in the present time.