by Cathy Porter
The censors…Alexeev’s book On Drunkenness: Tolstoy’s article ‘Why Are People Stupefied?’, which contains these phrases, appeared in volume 13, for which Sofia Tolstoy was pleading with the censors. The article had already been published as the preface to P.S. Alexeev’s book On Drunkenness, Moscow, 1891.
a Jewish sculptor from Paris: Evidently the sculptor Leopold Bernstamm, about whom A.S. Suvorin wrote to Tolstoy on 21st November 1889: “There is a Russian sculptor in Paris called Bernstamm, a talented man who wrote saying he would like to do a bust of you, and is prepared to leave Paris to visit you. He is held back only by his doubts as to whether you will agree to pose a few times for him.” Tolstoy replied: “If you can release me from this sculptor then please do so.”
A German…with us: Richard Deirenfurt had probably been sent by Loewenfeld to take Tolstoy the proofs of his book Leo Tolstoi. Sein Leben, seine Werke, seine Weltanschauung, Berlin, 1892. Tolstoy wrote in his diary: “We have had a German visiting. Very tedious.”
Timofei Fokanov: Timofei Fokanov, steward of Tolstoy’s estate in Samara.
the pavilion: The pavilion was what they called the little wooden house with the tiled roof, built in the park at Yasnaya Polyana in 1888. Masha Tolstaya and some local doctors ran a surgery for the peasants in it. It was later used to accommodate guests in the summer months.
started on…book on vegetarianism: In April 1891 Tolstoy received a book from Chertkov entitled The Ethics of Diet by Howard Williams, London, 1883. On 11th April he wrote to Sofia: “I have just been reading a wonderful book, a history of the ancients’ attitudes to vegetarianism.” As he continued reading this “wonderful and necessary book”, he wrote to Chertkov about his desire to write a preface to it, and in a letter to him of 6th May he wrote: “The people at home here have started translating it, and I have been helping.” Sofia, Tatyana and Masha Tolstaya all worked on the translation of this book, and others helped to finish it. For the preface Tolstoy visited a slaughterhouse on 7th June. The preface he embarked on then evolved into an article, ‘The First Step’. In 1893 the Intermediary brought out a Russian translation of the book, The Ethics of Diet, or the Moral Basis for a Non-violent Diet for Man, with an Introductory Article by L.N. Tolstoy: ‘The First Step’.
the French exhibition: The French Trade Fair, with a large art section, opened in Moscow in the spring of 1891.
Lyovochka wrote to me…public property: In a letter of 11th July, Tolstoy sent his wife the draft of an announcement to the newspapers, written in either his name or hers, renouncing the copyright on all the works he had written since the 1880s, which had appeared in volumes 12 and 13. After a discussion with her, he noted in his diary on 14th July: “She cannot understand, nor can the children, as they go on spending money, that every ruble my books earn that they live on causes me suffering and shame. The shame doesn’t matter. But why should they weaken this action of mine, which might have had some power to preach the truth. Well, the truth will do its work without me.”
Repin left today…in his belt: Ilya Repin stayed in Yasnaya Polyana between 26th June and 16th July. In this time he did a bust of Tolstoy and two portraits: a sketch, ‘Tolstoy Praying’, and ‘Tolstoy Working in His Study under the Arches’. According to Sergei Tolstoy, these were less successful than Repin’s previous works, because the painter was then under the influence of Impressionism and was “embellishing them with his own imagination”.
Ginzburg is sculpting…which isn’t so bad: Sofia Tolstoy later wrote: “If people want to put up a monument to Lev Nikolaevich, not one of the sculptures representing him has managed to convey his true appearance. The best one is the small bust with the folded arms by Trubetskoy.”
his letter to various newspapers…works: In an open letter of 16th September, Tolstoy wrote: “I hereby offer anybody who wants the chance to publish, without payment, in Russia and abroad, in Russian and in translations, and also to put on the stage, all those works which I wrote since 1881, and which were published in 1886, in Volume 12 of my Complete Collected Works, and in Volume 13, published in this year of 1891, as well as all my works which are as yet unpublished in Russia, and have been allowed to appear only since the publication of this recent volume.”
the story about Lipunyushka: Tolstoy’s story ‘Lipinyushka’ was taken from an anthology edited by F.A. Khudyakov, Great Russian Tales, Moscow, 1861.
woman student…and morality: “I haven’t seen her—she is with Masha at present,” Sofia wrote to her daughter Tanya on 29th July. In his diary Tolstoy noted on 31st July: “Larionova was here, a student from Kazan, who I had the pleasure of helping.” In a letter to Tolstoy the following day, Larionova wrote: “I didn’t manage yesterday to tell you how grateful I was. Thank you! It was the old story: before I came to see you I didn’t care whether I lived or died. I was just trying to find a way out of this brutal life—and I didn’t succeed. Now I’ve come to life again! Yesterday I wanted not only to shake your hand passionately and say ‘thank you!’—I wanted to weep with love for you.”
Two Frenchman have arrived: The psychologist Charles Richet and writer Octave Gudail visited Tolstoy. On 27th August, Tolstoy noted in his diary: “Of little interest.”
a letter arrived from Leskov…for publication: On 20th June 1891, the writer Nikolai Leskov asked Tolstoy in a letter: “What do you think about this disaster—should we poke our nose in? What is the decent thing to do? Maybe I could be useful in some way, but I have lost faith in all the so-called ‘good works’ of public charity, and I don’t know if one doesn’t actually do more harm than good by meddling in something which only results in more idleness. But it’s also hard to do nothing. Please tell me what you think one should do.” Replying to Leskov, Tolstoy wrote: “You ask me precisely what you can do? My reply to you is to appeal to people’s love for one another; not only their love in time of famine, but always and everywhere.”
Lyovochka…Pirogovo: Tolstoy and his daughter left for Pirogovo on 17th September. Between the 18th and the 22nd they visited villages in the Krapivna, Bogoroditsky and Efremovsky districts of Tula province.
Lyovochka went on to visit…a certain woman landowner: Probably a woman named Burdina.
Lyovochka…and Psychology: The November issue of the journal in which this article appeared was seized, and the article was sent to the Chief Department of Press Affairs. It was published, greatly abbreviated, in January 1892, under the title, ‘Aid to the Hungry’.
I wrote to the Minister of the Court…come of it: Sofia Tolstoy’s request was granted. The money from the performance of Tolstoy’s plays went to charity.
some other…sickly fellow: A.N. Kanevsky worked in Tolstoyan agricultural communes. He had set out on foot for the “Krinitsa” colony in the Caucasus, and on the way visited Yasnaya Polyana. On 24th October 1891, Tolstoy wrote in his diary: “Kanevsky has just left. He is touchingly simple and self-sacrificing. He came from Moscow without a kopeck. I sent him off to his father with 4 rubles. He spent two nights here.”
We all had one thing on our mind…the Red Cross: Lyova Tolstoy couldn’t give out in Samara the famine relief measures his father had applied, and was forced to distribute supplies to the peasants individually, which didn’t combat starvation as effectively as canteens. Tolstoy was dissatisfied with this decision, and wrote to his son, on 23rd December 1891: “The main thing to realize is that you are not called upon to feed 5,000 or 6,000 or x number of souls, but to distribute the aid that has come into your hands in the best possible way. In all conscience, is this what you are doing?” Sofia Tolstoy quotes unpublished letters from Lyova to his father about conditions of the Samara province: “Why talk of canteens when there isn’t so much as a crust of bread? First give us an army of 100 bakers, 10 wagon-loads of supplies and a whole crowd of people.” Afterwards Tolstoy regretted he had been so sharp about his son’s activities, and told him so in a letter.
1892
They had paraphrased Lyovochka’s article…revolutio
nary: Tolstoy’s article ‘On the Famine’, was banned by the censors. Tolstoy then sent it to Emilie Dillon, correspondent for the London Daily Telegraph. The article was translated by Dillon and published in several issues of the paper between 12th and 30th January, in the form of a series of letters entitled, ‘Why Are the Russian Peasants Starving?’ The Moscow Gazette cited one of these “letters”, inaccurately translated back from English, in a lead article entitled ‘Count Lev Tolstoy on the Starving Peasants’, claiming the “letters” were “open propaganda for the overthrow of the social and economic structure of the entire world”. On 23rd January, Sofia sent a ‘Letter to the Editors of the Moscow Gazette’ to refute this, but it wasn’t published.
Velichkina: Vera Velichkina, a doctor and revolutionary. She met Tolstoy in January 1892 and worked with him during the famine. Vera Velichkina, ‘The Year of the Famine with Lev Tolstoy’, in Memories of Tolstoy, Moscow, 1960.
They refused…the Government Herald: Replying to her on 13th February, Durnovo wrote: “Despite my great desire to grant your request, I find it difficult to agree to the promulgation of the denial you have sent me, since by its very nature it is bound to evoke further denunciations and occasion yet more polemics, which are extremely undesirable in the present social climate.”
I wrote…letter today: Tolstoy’s letter, written at her insistence, was not published, and she had 100 copies hectographed and sent to various periodicals, government figures and individuals.
1893
I have just learnt from Chertkov…of all people: In 1893 Chertkov stored some of Tolstoy’s manuscripts with a former fellow soldier in the household cavalry. Sofia wrote: “Knowing he might be searched, he gave Lev Nikolaevich’s banned works and manuscripts to his friend Trepov for safekeeping. When he took them back I do not know. This was the beginning of Chertkov’s despotic, yet excessively reverential and loving relationship with Lev Nikolaevich.” After Chertkov was exiled in 1897, the manuscripts of all Tolstoy’s works written after 1880 were sent with Tolstoy’s permission to Chertkov’s home in England, where they were stored in a special reinforced concrete vault, built near Christchurch, Hampshire. In 1913 these manuscripts were sent to the Academy of Sciences Library in St Petersburg, and in 1926 they were removed to the Tolstoy Museum in Moscow.
I believe in good and…responsibilities: Sofia explained this “insane” page in her diary: “I couldn’t help it; my overwrought state turned to malevolence and it suddenly seemed to me that the devil had possessed Lev Nikolaevich and frozen his heart.’
1894
he set off for the mushroom…cranberries: On 2nd and 14th March, she wrote to Tanya and Lyova Tolstoy: “Papa and Dunaev went to the mushroom market by the river. They bought some dried mushrooms for the Pirogovo Tolstoys and some for themselves, then had a little picnic. There were a great many people there, a lot of peasants from other parts, and Papa was absolutely fascinated.”
I am preparing Volume 13 for publication: The ninth edition of Tolstoy’s works.
Marcella by Mrs Humphry Ward: Mrs Humphry Ward, Marcella, New York, 1894.
1895
I read Jules Verne’s…Castaways: Tolstoy read these and other novels by Verne to his older children.
some documents…theft at Yasnaya Polyana: In December 1894 Sofia Tolstoy received a telegram from Yasnaya Polyana to say that thieves had broken into the house through a window, “breaking into trunks and cupboards, opening up everything, throwing things around and stealing clothes, bedding, and overcoats and various other things”. Several days later she left for Yasnaya Polyana.
The episode with the photograph still hasn’t died down: At the end of December 1894, Tolstoy was persuaded by Chertkov to have his photograph taken by Mey, with Chertkov, Biryukov, Gorbunov-Posadov, Tregubov and Popov. Tolstoy noted in his diary, on 31st December 1894: “Chertkov was here. There was an unpleasant argument over the portrait. Sonya was as decisive as ever, but rash and spiteful too.”
Chicherin…he treasures: Boris Chicherin, professor of Philosophy at Moscow University, had become friendly with Tolstoy in the winter of 1856–57. In his memoirs Chicherin wrote: “We were soulmates. Even now I cannot read his old letters to me without feeling deeply moved. They breathe youth, sincerity and freshness; they depict him so well in that early period when his talent was just beginning to develop, and they take me back so vividly to those distant times. However, even in those days there was already evidence of that tendency to philosophize which would later prove so fatal to him. His solitary life in the country gave even greater scope to the disease. He was preoccupied by lofty questions of existence, but there was never any basis for their resolution. Instead he gave himself up to his own private train of thought, mixed with large amounts of fantasy.”
ariston: A mechanical musical instrument rather like a musical box.
the petition presented to the new Tsar: The zemstvo representatives of Tver and various other regions sent petitions to Tsar Nicholas II expressing their willingness to participate in the government of Russia. In response, the Tsar gave them an audience and dismissed their wishes as “senseless dreams”. Tolstoy responded to this with an article, ‘Senseless Dreams’.
Lyovochka…Prince Dmitry Shakhovskoi: Tolstoy attended a congress called by representatives of the liberal intelligentsia to organize a protest against the Tsar’s speech. Those present failed to make any practical decisions. “A complete waste of time,” Tolstoy wrote in his diary on 29th January. “All very stupid, and quite obvious the organization was only parading the strength of the individuals present.”
this frenzy is an unforgivable, incorrigible vice: Later recalling her mental state at that time, Sofia wrote: “With time I realized that the real cause of my despair was my premonition of Vanechka’s death, which happened at the end of February. I fell into exactly the same despairing state in the summer just before Lev Nikolaevich’s death. Such times are beyond our powers of endurance. There are always plenty of opportunities for grief in our life. The question is whether we have the strength to survive them and control ourselves.”
Lyova has left for Ogranovich’s sanatorium: Lyova Tolstoy was sent to the hospital for nervous diseases established by Doctor M.P. Ogranovich near Zvenigorod, outside Moscow. On 21st February Tolstoy wrote in his diary: “Yesterday Ogranovich helped me to understand Lyova a little better. He explained that he had some latent form of malaria. And I suddenly began to understand his condition and felt sorry for him, although I still cannot summon up any genuine feeling of love for him.”
1897
Masha’s wedding…tomorrow: Maria Tolstaya married Nikolai Obolensky (Kolya) on 2nd June 1897. She wrote to Leonila Annenkova, on 8th May 1897: “Maman was at first opposed to my marriage, since he is very poor and is slightly younger than me. Papa likes my future husband very much, however, and thinks he is the best person I could have chosen. But he pities me and feels wretched for me, although he will never say what’s on his mind, never gives me any advice, and just avoids me. I am delighted he likes Kolya, and more importantly, believes in him, but of course the prospect of parting with him is dreadfully painful for me.”
Lev Nikolaevich is writing his article about art: In January 1897, Tolstoy began work on his tract What Is Art? Completed in 1898, the first uncensored edition appeared in 1898 in London, translated into English by Aylmer Maude.
Dunaev: Alexander Dunaev, director of the Moscow Trade Bank and a fellow thinker of Tolstoy’s.
I miss Sergei Ivanovich more than anything: Sofia wrote: “After the death of my little son Vanechka, I was in a state of utter despair, such as one experiences only once in a lifetime. Such grief usually kills one, but if it doesn’t, one’s heart is incapable of suffering so deeply again. But I survived, and I owe this to fate and to music. Once I had been intoxicated by music and learnt to listen to it, I could no longer live without it, and it was Taneev’s music that affected me more powerfully than any other; it was he who first taught me, with his be
autiful playing, how to listen to and love music. Sometimes I had only to meet Sergei Ivanovich and hear his calm, soothing voice to feel comforted. I was in a distressed state, and this coincided with my critical period. In the mood I was in at the time, I didn’t think very much about Taneev’s personality. To all appearances he was not very interesting, quite equable, extremely reticent, and a complete stranger to me to the end.”
settled Masha’s financial affairs: In accordance with the division of the property between the Tolstoy children (in 1891), the part belonging to Masha was worth 57,000 rubles. At first she refused this, but after her marriage she decided to accept her share. Her brother Sergei was to pay her this money from the mortgage on the Nikolskoe-Vyazemskoe estate. Before this, however, Sofia had taken the money, assuming that her daughter would later accept her share, and Sergei gave an undertaking to pay the money to his mother. Sofia now had to hand over to Masha the money Sergei had given her, and transfer to her name the remainder of the sum he owed her.
Kholevinskaya…help her: Maria Kholevinskaya, a zemstvo doctor in the Krapivna district of the province of Tula, was arrested in Tula in March 1896 and sent to prison for distributing the banned works of Tolstoy. She was arrested after a search revealed Tanya Tolstaya’s visiting card, with the message: “Give Tolstoy’s ‘What I Believe’ to a man you don’t know, who is reliable.” In April that year, Kholevinskaya was released from prison and exiled to Astrakhan. In a letter to Sofia of 30th May 1897, she said she was in bad health and begged her to “do her utmost to see that the punishment was alleviated”. What was “unpleasant” about this letter was that she referred several times to being unjustly punished on account of Tanya’s “ill-considered action”.
