The Diaries of Sofia Tolstoy

by Cathy Porter

  Lev Nikolaevich…Chertkov in England: Chertkov reproached Tolstoy in a letter of 19th June for not replying to several letters of his. On 20th June Tolstoy sent Chertkov a telegram apologizing for the delay.

  Aphrodite: Pierre Louÿs, Paris, 1896. For Tolstoy’s negative opinion of this book, see his What Is Art?

  Les Demi-vierges: Marcel Prévost, Paris, 1894

  A young man…long time: Stepan Shidlovsky, a peasant Stundist, living in the village of Kishentsa near Kiev. (The Stundists were an evangelical, communistically inclined sect, living in communes mainly in the South of Russia.) In a letter to P.I. Biryukov, of 14th July, Tolstoy wrote: “New friends have appeared from the province of Kiev. One of them, Shidlovsky, has been staying with us. I liked him very much.”

  kvas: A popular mildly alcoholic drink made from fermented bread.

  the Englishman Maude: Aylmer Maude, translator of Tolstoy’s works into English and author of a biography.

  some factory worker: Pyotr Bulakhov, a former Old Believer. According to Tolstoy, a man of “Herculean strength, both morally and intellectually”.

  Boulanger: Pavel Boulanger, official on the Moscow—Kursk railway and fellow thinker of Tolstoy’s.

  Chertkov had expressly asked…in English: Chertkov wrote to Tolstoy: “Recouping the funds spent on publication is directly dependent on the success of the English editions of your writings. And this success is largely dependent on us being the first to publish your latest works, which means preventing any other translators from acquiring by devious means a Russian transcript, either before us or simultaneously with us. It is most important for us to have a transcript of every new work of yours, if possible three weeks before it is distributed in manuscript form in Russia.” On 8th August Tolstoy replied: “There need be no doubt that all my writings will go to you before anyone else, and that you will make arrangements for their translation and publication.”

  he has decided to write an open letter to be published abroad: On 29th August 1897, Tolstoy wrote an open letter to the Swedish newspaper Stokholm Tagblatt refusing the Nobel Prize. Tolstoy felt the prize should be awarded to the Dukhobors. In October 1897 the paper published his letter. It was published in Russian in the journal Free Thought, no. 4, 1899. In referring to Nobel as a “kerosene merchant”, Sofia was confusing the Swedish engineer Alfred Nobel with L.E. Nobel, the well-known oil magnate.

  his friends have been deported: Tolstoy’s friends and co-thinkers, Biryukov, Tregubov and Chertkov, were exiled for “propaganda and illegal interference in the trial of the sectarians” and for distributing a proclamation, ‘Help!’, signed by them and Tolstoy, appealing for support for the Dukhobors. Chertkov was deported to England, Biryukov and Tregubov to the province of Courland.

  St John…Chertkov: Arthur St John, formerly an officer in the Indian Army, left the army under Tolstoy’s influence and settled in a farming colony in the south of England. In September 1897 he travelled to Russia on Chertkov’s instructions to give the Dukhobors money collected by English Quakers. As he wanted to be more closely acquainted with the Dukhobors, he went to the Caucasus, and was arrested there and banished from Russia.

  Boulanger is being deported…the Dukhobors: Pavel Boulanger was deported from Russia for his dealings with the Dukhobors in the Caucasus. In October 1897 Boulanger left for England.

  We had a visit from some Molokans: Molokans, members of the “milk-drinking” sect. On 18th September 1897, some Molokans visited Tolstoy from Samara begging him to use his influence to get their children returned to them. Their first visit to Tolstoy was in May that year. Tolstoy did everything in his power to help them. He wrote two letters to the Tsar and to a large number of influential people and friends. It was only in February 1898 that the children were eventually returned, thanks to the efforts of Tanya Tolstaya, who visited K.P. Pobedonostsev that January.

  Lev Nikolaevich’s letters to Koni…out of town: Tolstoy gave the Molokans who visited in May a letter he wrote to the Tsar, as well as letters to A.F. Koni, A.V. Olsufiev, A.S. Taneev, K.O. Khis and A.A. Tolstaya, asking them to help the Molokans. The Molokans destroyed the letters for fear of reprisals.

  his application…volunteer in the army: In 1898 Misha Tolstoy left the Lycée and enlisted.

  L.N. has described life in Moscow as “suicide”…not to come: Sofia Tolstoy wrote to Tolstoy on 25th November: “I thought, Lyovochka, that you would come here with Tanya, but you are evidently delaying your visit for as long as possible. Tanya told me you had even gone so far as to say that living in Moscow would be ‘suicide’ for you. Since you feel you are only coming here for my sake, this is not suicide, I am killing you. So I am now hastening to write and tell you for God’s sake, don’t come! This visit, which is such agony for you, will only deprive us both of our peace of mind and freedom. You will feel you are being ‘murdered’. Let us not kill one another with demands and reproaches, let us write to one another as friends, and I shall visit you when my nerves are calmer.” Tolstoy referred to this in his diary: “An aggrieved letter from Sonya. I shouldn’t have said it, but Tanya shouldn’t have repeated it.”

  Safonova: Varvara Safonova, wife of Vasily Safonov, pianist, conductor and director of the Moscow Conservatoire.

  Makovitsky: Doctor Dushan Petrovich Makovitsky, a Slovak, who had set up a Slovak branch of the Intermediary publishing house in Hungary, made a second visit to Yasnaya Polyana in connection with publishing matters. On that day Tolstoy noted in his diary: “This morning Makovitsky came, a sweet, pure, mild man.”

  in his diary he writes that I had “acknowledged my crime”: Tolstoy noted on 7th December: “Yesterday we talked and talked, and I heard something from Sonya that I have never heard before: an acknowledgement of her crime. This was a great joy. No matter what the future holds, it has happened and it is very good.”

  Qu’est-ce que…jeune: “How do you manage to stay so young?” (French).

  Lev Nikolaevich is totally unperturbed…in God’s hands: Tolstoy wrote in his diary on 21st December: “Received an anonymous letter yesterday threatening to kill me if I didn’t mend my ways by 1898. 1898, no later. It’s both frightening and good.”

  1898

  Stasov: Vladimir Stasov, well-known art and music critic.

  He is reading all he can find…everything: In this period Tolstoy was working on his story Hadji Murat.

  Biryukov is leaving Bauska for England: Pavel Biryukov, deported in 1897 to Bauska in Latvia for his part in helping the Dukhobors, received permission to go abroad in January.

  Molokans…begging for letters of introduction…St Petersburg: Tolstoy addressed a petition to the Tsar in the name of one of these visiting Molokans—F.I. Samoshkin—and asked Tanya Tolstaya, who was in St Petersburg at the time, to support their campaign.

  publish his preface…perfectly: At the time of writing his article What Is Art?, Tolstoy wrote a preface to an article by Edward Carpenter called ‘Modern Science’, translated by his son Seryozha. Tolstoy confessed that this article “explained” his own “work on art” to him.

  Lev Nikolaevich’s letter…collecting money for this: The Dukhobors, having received permission from the Russian government to emigrate, appealed to Tolstoy for help. On 17th March he wrote a letter to the editor of the St Petersburg Gazette appealing for public support for the Dukhobors, and also to E.E. Ukhtomsky, the paper’s editor. The appeal was not published.

  my story: Her story, ‘Song without Words’.

  Seryozha about some musical translation…questions: At Taneev’s suggestion, Seryozha Tolstoy was translating from the English Ebenezer Prout’s book Musical Form, Moscow-Leipzig, 1900.

  Lyova has come…sell the house: After the division of the property between Sofia Tolstoy and the children in 1891, the Tolstoy’s Moscow house belonged to Lyova Tolstoy.

  In Grinevka…canteens: Tolstoy stayed in Grinevka from 24th April to 27th May. His son Ilya, who accompanied him on his trips around the region, later wrote that when
making these enquiries, “Father always did the hardest work himself—finding out how many mouths there were to feed in each peasant family. He often used to travel round the villages for days at a time, often until late at night.” In all, twenty canteens were opened.

  asking Tanya for…10,000 rubles: Chertkov begged Tanya Sukhotina for a loan in two letters to her from England, dated the 8th and 9th of May. On 14th July Tolstoy informed Anna Chertkova (Chertkov’s wife) that his son Lyova Tolstoy had agreed to loan Chertkov the required sum.

  those two summers: S.I. Taneev stayed at Yasnaya Polyana in the summers of 1895 and 1896.

  we were obviously in the right: As a result of this court case the land remained with the Tolstoys.

  something L.N. wrote…concerning women…animal: The exact text of Tolstoy’s entry in his notebook, in April 1898, was: “A woman can only be liberated if she is a Christian. A liberated woman who is not a Christian is a wild beast.”

  Father Sergei…unfinished: In June 1898 Tolstoy resumed work on his story Father Sergei, which he had started in 1890, but after returning to Yasnaya Polyana he did no work on it and it was not published in his lifetime.

  He wants to finish Hadji Murat…emigration scheme: Tolstoy had intended to publish three works which were still unfinished and needed to be revised: Father Sergei, ‘The Devil’ and Resurrection. But he then concentrated all his attention on Resurrection, on which he worked until the end of 1899.

  two Dukhobors…most unpleasant: Two Dukhobors, P.V. Planidin and S.Z. Postnikov, who arrived at Yasnaya Polyana on 3rd August, had no passports and were hiding from the authorities.

  England…the Dukhobors…from Chertkov: Chertkov was a member of a committee formed by English Quakers in London to help the Dukhobors. At Tolstoy’s suggestion two Dukhobors, N.S. Zibarov and I.P. Obrosimov, visited Chertkov in England on 29th August 1898 to clarify the terms of the emigration to Canada and work out how much the journey would cost.

  he doesn’t marry…be hypocrisy: The first published edition (1899) of the novel ended with Nekhlyudov’s marriage to Katyusha and their departure to London.

  Pasternak: Leonid Pasternak, father of the writer, spent several days at Yasnaya Polyana. He later recalled that he did not want simply to “illustrate certain passages but to do a powerful artistic rendering of the Russian life Tolstoy was describing in his portraits of various layers of society”.

  Nous jouons gros jeu: “We are taking a big risk” (French).

  Mozart and Salieri, and Orpheus: On 25th November 1898, the Private Moscow Opera House staged the première of Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera Mozart and Salieri. The part of Salieri was sung by Chaliapin. Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice was performed on the same night.

  arshin and a half: Forty-two inches.

  The Soul of a People: C. Fielding, The Soul of a People. The American writer Ernest Crosby sent Tolstoy this book in November 1898. It was later translated into Russian on Tolstoy’s initiative, and published as The Soul of a People. The Story of the English Officer Fielding and His Life in Burma.

  1899

  Andryusha’s wedding: Andrei Tolstoy was about to marry Olga Dieterichs.

  Lev Nikolaevich had a visit from Myasoedov…Resurrection: I.M. Vinogradov, inspector of the Butyrki convict prison in Moscow, was invited by Tolstoy to look over the proofs of Resurrection for him. Tolstoy noted down his observations and made use of them in his subsequent work on the novel.

  Seryozha…his song…wept: Sergei Tolstoy’s song ‘We meet again…’ was set to words by A.A. Fet; Tolstoy considered it “sincere”.

  received a telegram…left for Kiev on Monday morning: Sofia Tolstoy left for Kiev on 8th February 1899. In reply to a letter from his wife informing him of Tanya Kuzminskaya’s almost hopeless condition, Tolstoy wrote, on 11th–12th February: “I know we all die, and there’s nothing bad about death, but it is still very painful. I love her very much.”

  Trubetskoy…horse: Trubetskoy did several sculptures of Tolstoy on horseback. The Tolstoy Museum contains a bronze sculpture (1904) and a bust (plaster covered in bronze 1900) by Trubetskoy, which Sofia considered the best of all his sculptures.

  a novel: Probably ‘Song without Words’.

  1900

  The Corpse: Tolstoy worked on his play The Living Corpse, originally titled The Corpse, from the beginning of January to November 1900. The play remained unfinished and was not published in his lifetime.

  They are thinking of starting a journal…the scheme: Pavel Boulanger had the idea of publishing a weekly, illustrated, literary-political and scientific journal called Morning. When they heard about Tolstoy’s proposed participation in the scheme, the Chief Department for Press Affairs forbade the journal to be published.

  The Ice House: A.N. Koreshchenko’s opera The Ice House, libretto by Modest Tchaikovsky, was performed in 1900 in the Bolshoi Theatre.

  This Malayan had read…him: On 19th November 1900, Tolstoy was visited by a Dutchman called Engelberg who had an administrative post on the island of Java and arrived with his friend.

  two choral works…‘The Stars’: S.I. Taneev. Two choral works and one “a cappella” piece for four mixed voices, ‘Stars’ and ‘At the Midnight Hour’, words by A.S. Khomyakov; ‘Alps’ and ‘Through the Azure Gloom of Night’, words by F.I. Tyutchev.

  the lunatic asylum: Professor S.S. Korsakov’s psychiatric clinic.

  zhaleiki: Russian folk wind instrument rather like a fife, made from a young branch of willow, or a reed cane, with a mouthpiece of cow horn or birch bark.

  1901

  On 24th February…has been excommunicated: On 24th February 1901, issue no. 8 of the Church Gazette published an announcement from the Holy Synod about Tolstoy, dated 20th–22nd February, which said: “The Church does not consider him a member as long as he does not repent and doesn’t restore his links with it.” On 25th February this document appeared in the newspapers. This was Tolstoy’s official excommunication from the Church. The newspaper cutting is pasted into the diary.

  I myself wrote…here: On 26th February 1901, Sofia Tolstoy sent a letter to the Chief Procurator of the Synod, K.P. Pobedonostsev, and the Metropolitans who had signed the excommunication. Learning of its contents, Tolstoy said, “There have been so many books written on the subject that you couldn’t fit them into the house—and you want to teach them what to do with your letter.” Sofia Tolstoy’s letter was printed on 24th March 1901, in a supplement of the Church Gazette, along with Metropolitan Antony’s reply of 16th March 1901. She pasted a cutting of this letter into her diary, with her own comments in the margin. “There are no limits to my sad indignation,” she wrote, “and not because my husband will be spiritually destroyed by this document: this is not men’s business, it is God’s. The religious life of a human soul is known to none but God, and mercifully it is not answerable to anyone. But as for the Church to which I belong and which I shall never renounce, which was created by Christ to bless in God’s name all the significant moments of life—births, weddings, deaths, human joys and griefs—from the point of view of this Church, the Synod’s instructions are utterly incomprehensible to me. It provokes not sympathy, but anger, and great love and compassion for Lev Nikolaevich. We are already receiving expressions of this—and there will be no end to them—from all over the world.”

  upheavals in the university…the poor: 183 students were drafted into the army for participating in the student uprisings that took place in Kiev University in January 1901. This provoked students in St Petersburg and elsewhere to come out in support of them. On 25th February there was a demonstration of students and workers in Moscow.

  None of Lev Nikolaevich’s manuscripts…foreign languages: Her letter was published only in the foreign press and distributed in Russia in hectographed form; the Moscow censorship committee had been sent a circular forbidding papers to publish telegrams and other material “expressing sympathy” with Tolstoy.

  Lev Nikolaevich…His Assistants: Tolstoy’s letter wa
s in response to the government’s persecution of students who had taken part in the demonstrations, and was also sent to the Grand Dukes and all the Ministers.

  my concert in aid of the orphanage…1,307 rubles: The concert took place on 7th March 1901. The programme of the concert has been sewn into the Diary.

  I received…completely soulless: Metropolitan Antony wrote to her on 16th March 1901: “It is not the Synod which has acted cruelly in announcing your husband’s lapse from the Church, it is he himself who has acted cruelly in renouncing his faith in Jesus Christ, son of the living God, our saviour and expiator. This renunciation should have provoked your grief and anger long ago. And your husband will not of course perish from a scrap of printed paper, but from the fact that he has turned aside from the source of Life Eternal. You receive expressions of sympathy from the entire world. This does not surprise me, but I do not think this is any cause for consolation. There is human glory, and there is the glory of God.”

  letter from Queen Elizabeth…her little book: Letter from Queen Elizabeth (pseudonym Carmen Silva) of 16th July. Tolstoy thanked her for her letter, and told her he hadn’t received the work she sent.

  Doctor Makovitsky: The Slovak Doctor Dushan Makovitsky had visited Yasnaya Polyana twice before, in 1894 and 1897.

  Maxim Gorky: Gorky was staying at a dacha in Oleiza, about a mile from Gaspra.

  1902

  Giuseppe Mazzini’s On Human Duty: Tolstoy considered the book “excellent”.

  Chekhov called: Anton Chekhov, who was living in Yalta, visited Tolstoy soon after his arrival in the Crimea, and had several meetings with him.

  he asked…to it: Tolstoy was continuing work on ‘On Religious Tolerance’.

  Count Olsufiev…easy death: Apropos of the death of A.V. Olsufiev, a friend of the Tolstoy family who died on 9th September 1901 of diabetes, Tolstoy wrote to his brother Sergei, on 6th November 1901: “He was walking about in the morning, talked for 10 minutes, realized he was dying, said goodbye to everyone, gave advice to his children and kept repeating: ‘I never thought dying would be so easy.’”