Chapter I: Front Matter

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THE LAST DAYS OF TOLSTOY

by

VLADIMIR TCHERTKOFF

Translated from the Russian by Nathalie A. Duddington

1922 London: William Heinemann

Printed in Great Britain

CONTENTS

PAGE
Introduction ix

Public opinion demands that facts with regard to Tolstoy's going away should be revealed--The conditions of Tolstoy's life were a test of his consistency--Why is it necessary to publish the circumstances of his going away?--The importance of Tolstoy's example--Misrepresentation of the causes of his going away--The moral duty of his friends to defend his memory--My task.

PART I

WHY TOLSTOY DID NOT LEAVE HIS HOME 1

(Letter to H. Dosev)

Dosev's mistake, common to many--Tolstoy's true motives--His independence of the opinion of men--The limit of his yielding--In order to go away he had to feel the necessity for doing so--It was easier to go than to remain--Tolstoy's sufferings at Yasnaya Polyana (from his intimate diary)--The mistake of passing censure upon his life at Yasnaya--He fulfilled that which God required of him--His love for his wife and his confidence in her--His self-sacrifice for her sake--We must believe in his conscientiousness--The heroism of his life in his family.

PART II

WHY TOLSTOY WENT AWAY

Chapter I.--The conditions of life at Yasnaya Polyana 18

Wealthy surroundings--False position in the eyes of men--Spiritual break with his wife.

Chapter II.--Change for the worse in his wife's attitude to him 26

Change for the worse in the conditions of life at Yasnaya with regard to the management of the estate, to the relations with the peasants, and in his wife's attitude to him--Tolstoy gives up landed property--His readiness to go away and the causes of his delay in making a final decision.

Chapter III.--The history of the will 32

Tolstoy's attitude to property in general and to literary property in particular--His differences with his wife on that score--Tolstoy's firmness in renouncing the copyright of his works--His wife's opposition--Short history of the drawing up of the will.

Chapter IV.--Intervals of rest--in other people's houses 48

Mental and physical revival--Creative work.

Chapter V.--The last period 52

Summer of 1910--Period of suffering that undermined his health.

Chapter VI.--Mental agony 58

Tolstoy's disappointment at the impossibility of awakening his wife's spiritual consciousness--Recognition that his further stay at Yasnaya Polyana is unnecessary--The harm that his staying there did to Sofya Andreyevna.

Chapter VII.--The night of Tolstoy's going away 63

The last touch--Preparations and departure--Entries in the diary.

Chapter VIII.--Tolstoy's relation to his wife 67

Letters to her in 1897 and after his departure--Reasons why he did not wish to see her.

Chapter IX.--The motives that decided his going away 78

The last straw--Mistaken judgments about Tolstoy's going away.

Chapter X.--The significance of Tolstoy's going away and of the whole spiritual achievement of his life 86

The one desire of his life, to do the will of God--The inevitability of the end.