The word толсто́вка has had quite a journey. Today, if you say it, most people will picture a cozy hoodie. But originally, it referred to something quite different: a loose, long men’s blouse tied with a belt, in the style made famous by Leo Tolstoy. In fact, during Tolstoy’s own lifetime, толсто́вка meant something entirely different - a female follower of the famous writer - but no one used that word for his distinctive-looking shirt that you can see him wearing in at least two iconic portraits.
As time went on, the meaning of толсто́вка shifted. In different periods of the Soviet era, the word was used for various kinds of plain, practical men’s blouses — still loose, still often belted, and still carrying that understated, “no-frills” aesthetic that people associated (rightly or not) with Tolstoy himself. The exact style changed, but the name stuck, quietly following fashion as it evolved.
Then, sometime in the 1990s, толсто́вка made another leap — this time landing squarely in the modern wardrobe. The word came to mean what we’d now call a hoodie. It’s not hard to see the connection: the same loose, comfortable fit, just updated for a different century (and with a hood instead of a belt). So next time you pull on your baggy hoodied sweatshirt, you might be channeling a little bit of Tolstoy — even if he never wore one quite like that.