LEO TOLSTOY

THE GREATEST OF RUSSIAN WRITERS AND TEACHERS

1828-1910

(INTRODUCTORY NOTE)

Lyof (Leo) Nikolayevitch, Count Tolstoy, the greatest of Russian moral and social philosophers and novelists, owes his eminence largely to the fact that most of his works are autobiographical in nature, for introspection is his leading characteristic.

Born on his father's estate, Yasnaya Polyana, in the Government of Tula, in 1828, he was graduated in law (of which he asserted he “literally knew nothing') from the University of Kazan in 1848. He lived on his estate until 1851, when he visited his eldest brother Nicolay, an artillery officer, in the Caucasus. Attracted by the natural beauties of the region and the free, simple life of the people, he joined an artillery regiment, and in 1853 was attached to the Army of the Danube, taking part in the defense of Sebastopol during the Crimean War. At the end of the war he resigned his commission and went to St. Petersburg. In 1857 he made a trip through Germany to Switzerland, returning with a desire to remedy the poverty of the people and the ignorance and heartlessness of modern society which he had observed. Settling down on his estate he devoted himself to the education of the peasants, making a later trip to Germany to observe the pedagogical methods employed there. Thereafter he stayed at home and devoted himself to writing, until his death in 1910.

The chief books of Tolstoy are: the stories, autobiographical in character, written while in the Caucasus, "Childhood,' ""Boyhood," and "The Cossacks"; the vivid descriptions of the siege of Sebastopol, 1854-55, which won him world-wide fame as a realistic writer; the study of social conditions presented in the form of fiction, which he wrote on his return from Switzerland, and which he entitled "From the Memoirs of Prince Nekhludof (Luzern)"; three chapters (no more were ever written) of "The Decembrists," an historical novel on the reign of Alexander I, dealing particularly with Napoleon's Russian campaign; his great epic novel, "War and Peace," published 1864-69, embracing not only the great events of Russian history, but also all

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ranks of Russian society from Czar to peasant; "Anna Karenina," long and powerful novel dealing with the problems of love and marriage (published 1875-76); religious and social works, such as "Commentary on the Gospel" (1883), "Confession," "My Religion,' 'What Shall We Then Do?"; short stories, such as "The Death of Ivan Ilyitch" (1885); and the dramas, The Power of Darkness" and "Fruits of Culture," attacking respectively the spiritualistic mania prevalent in aristocratic society, and the barren artistic and literary pursuits of the so-called élite.

"The Kreutzer Sonata" (1888), a novel denouncing marriage made a great stir throughout the world, notably in America. "What Is Art?” (1898) is an exhaustive compendium and critic of views of the leading writers on the subject. "Resurrection" (1899) is the culmination of his social philosophy, presented in the guise of fiction. While it deals in particular with sexual immorality, it is also a general arraignment of existing social institutions. Its publication would seem to have been the deciding cause of the long-threatened excommunication of Tolstoy by the Holy Synod, which was issued in 1901.

Though he addressed bold letters to the Czar during the abortive revolution of 1905-6, demanding universal suffrage, representative government, land reform and other democratic measures, he was not punished by the government, evidently through fear of the people, who reverenced him as a prophet, the great teacher of social justice.

In 1911, one year after Tolstoy's death, his friend, Paul Birukoff, published "Leo Tolstoy, His Life and Work," which was begun in 1905. It is a memoir consisting of an autobiography of early life contributed by Tolstoy, and supplemented by passages from Tolstoy's autobiographical stories such as "Childhood" and "Boyhood" and his "My Confessions," as well as of details of later life similarly gathered from diaries, correspondence and books. We present here in autobiographical form material selected from Birukoff's work relating events in Tolstoy's life down through the period of "Youth," where Tolstoy's own reminiscences cease to preserve the character of a continuous narrative.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF COUNT LEO TOLSTOY

INTRODUCTION

My friend, Paul Birukoff, having undertaken to write my biography (for the complete edition of my works), has asked me to furnish him with some particulars of my life.

In my imagination I began to compose my autobiography. At first I involuntarily began in the most natural way with

only that which was good in my life, merely adding to this good side, like shade on a picture, its dark, repulsive features. But upon examining the events of my life more seriously I saw that such an autobiography, though it might not be a direct lie, would yet be a lie, owing to the biased exposure and lighting up of the good and the hushing up or smoothing down of the evil. Yet when I thought of writing the whole truth without concealing anything that was bad in my life, I was shocked at the impression which such an autobiography was bound to produce. At that time I fell ill, and during the unavoidable idleness of an invalid, my thoughts kept continually turning to my reminiscences, and dreadful these reminiscences were.

Under this impression I wrote the following in my diary: "6th January, 1903.-I am now suffering the torments of hell: I am calling to mind all the infamies of my former life -these reminiscences do not pass away and they poison my existence. Generally people regret that the individuality does not retain memory after death. What a happiness that it does not! What an anguish it would be if I remembered in this life all the evil, all that is painful to the conscience, committed by me in a previous life. And, if one remembers the good, one has to remember the evil too. What a happiness that reminiscences disappear with death and that there only remains consciousness, a consciousness which, as it were, represents the general outcome of the good and the evil, like a complex equation reduced to its simplest expression: x=a positive or a negative, a great or a small quantity."

Yes, the extinction of memory is a great happiness; with memory one could not live a joyful life. As it is, with the extinction of memory we enter into life with a clean white page upon which we can write afresh good and evil.

It is true that not all my life was so fearfully bad. That character prevailed only for a period of twenty years. It is also true that even during that period my life was not the uninterrupted evil that it appeared to me during my illness; for even during that period there used to awake in me impulses toward good, although they did not last long and were soon stifled by unrestrained passions.

Still these reflections, especially during my illness, clearly