Death of Tolstoy

S. Nickell William

Description

In the middle of the night of October 28, 1910, Leo Tolstoy, the most famous man in Russia, vanished. A secular saint revered for his literary genius, pacificism, and dedication to the earth and the poor, Tolstoy had left his home in secret to embark on a final journey. His disappearance immediately became a national sensation. Two days later he was located at a monastery, but was soon gone again. When he turned up next at Astapovo, a small, remote railway station, all of Russia was following the story. As he lay dying of pneumonia, he became the hero of a national narrative of immense significance.In The Death of Tolstoy, William Nickell describes a Russia engaged in a war of words over how this story should be told. The Orthodox Church, which had excommunicated Tolstoy in 1901, first argued that he had returned to the fold and then came out against his beliefs more vehemently than ever. Police spies sent by the state tracked his every move, fearing that his death would embolden his millions of supporters among the young, the peasantry, and the intelligentsia. Representatives of the press converged on the stationhouse at Astapovo where Tolstoy lay ill, turning his death into a feverish media event that strikingly anticipated today's no-limits coverage of celebrity lives-and deaths.Drawing on newspaper accounts, personal correspondence, police reports, secret circulars, telegrams, letters, and memoirs, Nickell shows the public spectacle of Tolstoy's last days to be a vivid reflection of a fragile, anxious empire on the eve of war and revolution.

Sujets

• Russie
• Union des républiques socialistes soviétiques
• History of Europe
• Russia
• Soviet Union
• USSR
• Histoire

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 15 juin 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780801462559
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

THE DEATH OF TOLSTOY

ii

Chapter 1

WILLIAM NICKELL

Cornell University Press Ithaca & London

Chapter 1

THE DEATH OF TOLSTOY

iii

RUSSIA ON THE EVE, ASTAPOVO STATION, 1910

Frontispiece:Vladimir Chertkov photographs Tolstoy as he reads his mail with Valentin Bulgakov, May 19, 1910. This image was captured by Thomas Tapsell, a professional English photographer hired by Chertkov; Chertkov shot a similar picture of Tapsell photographing Tolstoy in the elds of Yasnaya Polyana.

Copyright © 2010 by Cornell University

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form with out permission in writing from the publisher. For information, ad dress Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

First published 2010 by Cornell University Press

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Nickell, William, 1961  The death of Tolstoy : Russia on the eve, Astapovo Station, 1910 / William Nickell.  p. cm.  Includes bibliographical references and index.  ISBN 9780801448348 (cloth : alk. paper)  1. Tolstoy, Leo, graf, 18281910Death and burial. 2. Tolstoy, Leo, graf, 18281910AppreciationRussia. 3. RussiaIntellectual life18011917. I. Title.  PG3395.N53 2010  891.73'3dc22 2009049661

Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publish ing of its books. Such materials include vegetablebased, lowVOC inks and acidfree papers that are recycled, totally chlorinefree, or partly composed of nonwood bers. For further information, visit our website at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.

Cloth printing

 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

Acknowledgments  Introduction 1 The Family Crisis as a Public Event 2Tolstoys Final JourneyTransgurations of  Narrative 3Media at Astapovo and the Creation of The a Modern Pastoral 4 Tolstoyan Violence upon the Funeral Rites of the State 5 On or About November 1910

Conclusion: The Posthumous Notes of Fyodor Kuzmich

A Word on My Sources Notes Index

vii

1 13 55

89 115 143 159

165 167 203

Acknowledgments

wish to thank Irina Paperno, Eric Naiman, Reginald Zelnik, I Hugh McLean, Michael Denner, Donna Orwin, and Olga Matich for their invaluable advice and encouragement in the writing of this book. I also thank Evgenii Bershtein, Shawn Elliott, Robert Wessling, Molly Wessling, and Maryse Meijer. Financial support allowing research for this book was provided by the International Research and Exchanges Board, The Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Gary Licker Research Chair at the University of California, Santa Cruz. In the nal stages of work I received the wonderful support of Deanna Shemek and Tyrus Miller. The staff at the Tolstoy Museum in Moscow pro vided tremendous assistance and good will, but I owe a special note of grati tude to Valentina Stepanovna Bastrykina, without whose willing help and invaluable advice I could never have completed this project. Chapter 2 has previously appeared inTolstoy Studies JournalXVII (2006). Chapter 4 has previously appeared in Russian translation inNovoe literaturnoe obozrenie44 (2000). Both are reprinted here by permission of the editors.

THE DEATH OF TOLSTOY