6. Alexandra Andreyevna Tolstaya (Alexandrine), 1860s.
7. Sofya (Sonya) Tolstaya and her younger sister Tatyana (Tanya) Bers, 1861.
8. Sonya in the drawing room at Yasnaya Polyana, 1902.
9. The old Yasnaya Polyana mansion where Tolstoy was born in 1828, and which he later sold to a neighbouring landowner.
10. Tolstoy’s house at Yasnaya Polyana before the addition of a final extension in the 1890s.
11. Tolstoy by Kramskoy (1873).
12. Tolstoy ploughing with horses, 1887 by Repin.
13. Repin, Tolstoy in his study at Yasnaya Polyana, 1891.
14. Repin’s first portrait of Tolstoy, 1887.
15. Sonya standing by a portrait of her deceased son Ivan (Vanechka), Yasnaya Polyana, 1897.
16. Tolstoy and his Starley Rover bicycle, 1895.
17. Tolstoy and Sonya, August 1895.
18. The Tolstoy children with their mother in Gaspra, Crimea, 1902.
19. Tolstoy and his sister Maria (Masha), 1908.
20. Tolstoy on horseback in the environs of Yasnaya Polyana, 1908.
21. Tolstoy at the opening of the People’s Library in Yasnaya Polyana village, 31 January 1910.
22. Repin, Tolstoy barefoot, 1901.
Illustrations in the text
1. Tolstoy’s maternal grandfather, Nikolay Sergeyevich Volkonsky.
2. The house in Moscow, to which Nikolay Ilyich Tolstoy brought his mother, sister and five children in 1837.
3. Page from the first edition of Tolstoy’s ABC book, 1872.
4. The fourth draft of the opening of Anna Karenina, 1873.
5. Father Ambrosy, the Elder at Optina Pustyn Monastery.
6. Konstantin Pobedonostsev.
7. Vladimir Chertkov as a young man, 1880s.
8. Pencil drawing by Repin of Tolstoy reading in his favourite chair, 1887.
9. Cartoon showing ‘Tolstoy at work’.
10. Tolstoy skating in the back garden of his Moscow house in 1898.
11. Dmitry Khilkov and Sergey Lvovich Tolstoy with a group of those accompanying the Dukhobors to Canada, 1899.
12. Cartoon showing Tolstoy as a giant next to the tiny Tsar, 1901.
13. Tolstoy photographed with his brother Sergey’s widow, the former gypsy singer, 1906.
14. Tolstoy and Chertkov, Yasnaya Polyana, 1907.
15. Chertkov and employees of the Free Word Press at his house in Christchurch, 1906.
Picture credits
PLATES
Russian Museum, St Petersburg, / The Bridgeman Art Library: 22; Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow / The Bridgeman Art Library: 11, 12, 14; Leah Bendavid-Val, Song Without Words: The Photographs & Diaries of Countess Sophia Tolstoy, Washington, DC, 2007: 15; M. Loginova et al, L. N. Tolstoi: Dokumenty. Rukopisi. Fotografii, Moscow, 1995: 1–7, 10, 16–18, 20, 21; S. M. Tolstoi, Tolstoi i Tolstye: ocherki iz istorii roda, Moscow, 1990: 9, 19
ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT
L. N. Tolstoi, Polnoe sobranie sochinenii, ed. V. G Chertkov, 90 vols, Moscow, 1928–58, vol 20: 4; vol. 22: 3; M. Loginova et al, L. N. Tolstoi: Dokumenty. Rukopisi. Fotografii, Moscow, 1995: 2, 5, 6, 7, 11, 15; S. M. Tolstoi, Tolstoi i Tolstye: ocherki iz istorii roda, Moscow, 1990, : 1, 8, 13; Yury Bitovt, Graf L. N. Tolstoi v karrikaturakh i anekdotakh, Moscow, 1908: 9; P. N. Krasnov and L. M. Vol’f, eds., Gr. Lev Tolstoi: velikii pisatel’ zemli russkoi v portretakh, grayurakh, zhivopisi, skul’pture, karikaturakh i t d., Moscow, 1903: 12
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Many people have helped me in various ways during the writing of this book, and I should like to thank: Catherine Clarke; Peter Carson, Penny Daniel, Trevor Horwood and Valentina Zanca; everyone at the Taylor Bodleian Slavonic Library in Oxford, in particular Jenny Griffiths; Gabriel Amherst, Paul and Hilary Bartlett, Clem Cecil, Olga Dubova, Jane Eagan, Michael Earley, Roberta di Giorgi, Candida Ghidini, Monika Greenleaf, Peter Greenleaf, Alexander Hoare, Lara Lamb, Inessa Medzhibovskaya, Nina Lobanov-Rostovsky, Judith Luna, Quentin Newark, Tom Newlin, Janet Phillips, Jennie de Protani, Damiano Rebecchini, Laura Rossi, Zoya Serebrennikova, Nick Star-gardt, Vladimir Tarnopolsky, Lucy and Tom Walker and Nana Zhvitiashvili. Special thanks to David Tietjen.
INDEX
Figures in italics indicate captions.
A
About, Edmond 178, 281
Abramovich, Maria Ivanovna 163, 258
Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, Moscow 368
Adrian, Patriarch 382–3
Aesop’s fables (trans. by T) 4, 190, 354–5
‘The Frog and the Lion’ 195–6
Afanasiev, Alexander 193
Agafya Mikhailovna (Pelageya Nikolayevna Tolstaya’s servant), 39, 156, 205, 311
Ahmed III, Sultan 15
Aix-les-Bains 241
Aksakov, Ivan 247
Aksakov, Konstantin 124–5
Aksakov, Sergey 124–5
Aksakova, Anna (née Tyutcheva) 138, 201, 247
Alarm Clock, The 296
Albertini-Sukhotina, Tatyana Mikhailovna (‘Tatyana Tatyanovna’
T’s granddaughter) 35, 403
Aleutian Islands 50
Alexander I, Tsar of Russia 62, 70, 99, 165, 167, 171
Alexander II, Tsar of Russia 13, 75, 87, 112, 122, 127, 128, 143, 145, 153, 165, 183, 215, 217, 247, 257, 270, 275, 288, 291, 306, 330, 331
Alexander III, Tsar of Russia 17, 228, 252, 288, 306, 324, 329, 331, 332–3, 339, 343–4, 349, 353, 365, 386, 387, 392
Alexander Nevsky (frigate) 176
Alexandra, Queen 371
Alexandra Fyodorovna, Empress Consort 392, 398
Alexey Petrovich, Tsarevich of Russia 16
Alexeyev, Vasily 258–65, 288, 289, 292, 294, 306, 321
Alexy, Patriarch of Moscow 453
All-Russian Central Executive Committee 446
Alma, Battle of (1854) 109
Alyosha Popovich (bogatyr) 65, 66, 193
Ambrosy, Elder 254, 255–8, 280, 290
animal rights 8, 334
Anke Cake 321–2
Anna Ioannovna, Empress 276
‘ant brothers’ 52, 53, 54
anti-vivisectionists 374
Antony of Egypt, St 192
Antony of St Petersburg, Metropolitan 387, 388, 390, 396
The Arabian Nights: Tales from a Thousand and One Nights 41, 64
Arbuzov, Pavel 205
Arbuzov, Sergey 205, 289
Arbuzova, Maria Afanasievna 205
aristocracy
nouveau-riche 21
freed from compulsory state service 24, 27
T on moral duties of 81
T as a ‘repentant nobleman’ 3, 78, 127
T renounces his aristocratic birthright 78
T regards his fellow nobles as vile parasites 145
Arkhangelsk 16, 17, 19, 22, 24, 355
Armenia 108
Armfeldt, Anna 312–13, 350
Armfeldt, Natalya 313, 350
Arnold, Matthew 143, 310–11, 347
meets T 143
Literature and Dogma: An Essay towards a Better Apprehension of the Bible 310
Arseneva, Valeria 130, 131, 132, 139
Artaxerxes II 190
Arzamas 185, 188
Assumption Cathedral, Kremlin, Moscow 62
Astapovo station 412, 414
atheism, atheists 256, 272, 284
Athenaeum Club, Pall Mall, London 142
Attila the Hun 33
Auerbach, Berthold 144, 190
A New Life 144, 189–90
Augustine, St: Confessions 285
Austerlitz, Battle of (1805) 179
Avars 100
Avdotya Nikiforovna (T’s wetnurse) 35
Avvakum, Archpriest 167, 269, 270
Azov campaigns 217
B
Bad Kissingen, Germany 141
Baden-Baden, Germany 135, 176
Bagration, Prince Pyotr Ivanovich 19
Balaclava, Battle of (1854) 110
Balbek river 112
Balkan Question 249
Balkans 247, 249
Ballou, Adin: Catechism of Non-violence 341
Baltic Fleet 392, 400–401
Balzac, Honoré de 133
Baptists 272, 386, 429
Barclay de Tolly, General Count Mikhail 171
Bartenev, Pyotr 168–71, 173, 266
Baryatinskaya, Princess Elena 396