Tolstoy

The 1905 Revolution directly affected Tolstoy, since it meant that all his banned writings could now suddenly be published, although it took a while for the reforms to take effect. His new article, ‘Appeal to the Russian People’, in which he predictably condemned both the government and the revolutionaries, was seized by the police before it could be distributed in March 1906, but it went on sale freely in St Petersburg at the end of the year when it was published by the Free Word Press, which Chertkov had just moved to St Petersburg.¹⁵⁷ Scores of Tolstoy’s other previously banned writings followed, while he moved on to his next article: ‘The Meaning of the Russian Revolution’. In March 1906 Chertkov received official notification that he could return to Russia, but he had already made one visit back home. In the midst of all the disturbances in 1905, Chertkov’s influential mother had obtained permission from the Tsar for her son to make a three-week visit, not only to St Petersburg to see her, but also to Yasnaya Polyana. It was a joyous reunion, and even Sonya was glad to see Chertkov.¹⁵⁸ Moving back to Russia permanently was inhibited for Chertkov by his sick wife, the comfort of his surroundings in England and the extent of his publishing operations, and so it was a gradual process which took place over the next few years.

Since his illness in 1902, the situation at Yasnaya Polyana had been more or less peaceful. Tolstoy still hated having to live in the luxurious environment of his ancestral home. He still hated being served dinner by servants in white gloves, and he wanted to leave, but somehow he had stayed put. despite his professed desire for a secluded life, there was little chance of that. Biryukov returned from exile in december 1904. He had been completing the first authorised biography of Tolstoy, and his subject now had the chance to read the manuscript and answer his questions before preparing it for publication.¹⁵⁹ The quiet Slovak doctor dušan Makovický also arrived in december 1904, and settled at Yasnaya Polyana as Tolstoy’s personal physician. Mako-settled at Yasnaya Polyana as Tolstoy’s personal physician. Makovický’s salary was paid by Chertkov, who now acquired a useful channel of communication about his friend’s state of health, and much more besides.¹⁶⁰ A fervent Tolstoyan who had made his first visit to Yasnaya Polyana in 1894, Makovický worshipped the ground Tolstoy walked on, and took to keeping a pencil and notebook in his trouser pocket so he could surreptitiously scribble down everything he said. The gathering of Tolstoy’s utterances was a project Chertkov was also fanatic about. He had started it in 1889, and continued with it until 1923, when his appointed compiler died, by which time there were about 25,000 diverse and sometimes very trivial thoughts recorded in an enormous file.¹⁶¹

With an eye to posterity, Sonya had meanwhile started writing what would prove to be an extremely long account of her own life as the spouse of an impossible genius. She also put together an inventory of the enormous library at Yasnaya Polyana, and started putting her husband’s archive in order. In 1904 she was obliged to move everything from the Rumyantsev Library (where she had placed his manuscripts initially) to the History Museum next to Red Square, and so now on her trips to Moscow to take care of publishing business, she also spent her mornings copying out the material she needed.¹⁶² Sonya was renowned for being short sighted (a photograph of her attending a photography lecture shows her sitting almost underneath the speaker), for lacking a sense of humour (a lot of Chekhov’s early stories left her cold), and for being busy. Like her husband, she also never ‘retired’, and as well as becoming an accomplished photographer, she acquired skill in painting.¹⁶³ She also enjoyed being a grandmother. In 1905, after many miscarriages, Tanya gave birth to a daughter, also named Tatyana, who was affectionately given a ‘matronymic’ rather than the usual patronymic in deference to Tanya’s heroic achievement in becoming a mother. ‘Tatyana Tatyanovna’ became the Tolstoys’ fifteenth grandchild, and was particularly beloved.