The Diaries of Sofia Tolstoy (72 page)

 

23rd (Moscow)
. Went out on business this morning with Nina; the manager of Levenson's came to visit, and said my book,
Letters to His Wife
, had almost sold out.

 

3rd December (Yasnaya Polyana)
. We read Dostoevsky's
The Devils
again after dinner, then sight-read a little of Gluck's
Orpheus
and Mozart's
Don Giovanni
. I sat and discussed books with Bulgakov.

 

13th
. I sent 25 rubles to the priest who performed the funeral service for Lev Nik. We are still reading
The Devils
.

 

14th
. Did a lot of typing—finished copying my
Autobiography
. We read
The Devils
.

 

17th
. We have started reading Dostoevsky's
The Idiot
. Dostoevsky is so coarse; I don't like him.

 

22nd
. I went at last to the grave; the weather was most unpleasant and my soul was desolate. I prayed all the way. Young G.V. Serov came and took away his father's portrait of me for an exhibition. This evening we gilt nuts for the Christmas tree.

 

23rd
. The pre-Christmas commotion is unbearable. This evening we read Gruzinsky's article about Tolstoy's letters, then some Dostoevsky.

 

30th
. I spent the morning alone, but had some delightful letters from various grandchildren. This evening I lit up the Christmas tree for the servants' children. They recited poems and we played the gramophone, and I think everyone had a good time. Sonya Bibikova came, and Nina's sister.

 

31st
. Seryozha, Andryusha and his wife came; Sasha too was here, and we had a nice New Year's party, without much merriment but very amicable. I was grateful to them for not letting me pine on my own. After supper Sasha played—very well too. A sunny day, a brilliant sunset, a quiet moonlit night.

Summer—strike movement reaches its highest point since 1904–6, and violent demonstrations greet President Poincaré of France when he visits St Petersburg. 28th June—Archduke Ferdinand of Austria assassinated in Sarajevo. 28th July—Austria declares war on Serbia and Belgrade bombarded. Tsar Nicholas II orders mobilization. 2nd August—Russia enters war. Wave of patriotism sweeps Russia and there is a lull in strikes and demonstrations. By mid-September some 50,000 Russians killed. Growing discontent at home
.

March—legal dispute over Tolstoy's manuscripts finally settled in Sofia's favour. Summer—Yasnaya Polyana empties as peasants conscripted. Sofia, horrified by the war, is dismayed when her son Misha enlists and her daughter Sasha enrols as a nurse at the Turkish front, and finds her ideas becoming closer to her husband's. October—police visit Yasnaya Polyana at night, search it and arrest Tolstoy's former secretary Valentin Bulgakov. Sofia finishes work on
My Life.

 

1st January
. The start of another year, and I am still alive. Andryusha and Katya have left. Seryozha played beautifully all evening—Beethoven sonatas mainly.

 

10th
. I copied my letters and finished reading
The Idiot
. I shall now read Chirikov's novel and Yakubovsky's book
Positive Peasant Characters in the Work of Tolstoy
.

 

1st February
. The Chertkovs have been searched by the police.* I am interested in the new change of ministers.

 

4th
. This evening Nina read me Turgenev's
Faust
, which I had forgotten, then we corrected
Tolstoy's Letters to His Wife
. And so it goes every day. It's as if life had frozen. It grieves me that I see so little of my children and grandchildren, but have neither the physical nor spiritual strength for it.

 

14th
. 40 students from Shanyavsky University came to visit the grave and the house. There were some women with them too. I chattered
on too long about Sasha and Chertkov. Then I copied out 28 pages of my letters. I have finished reading Turgenev's ‘The Calm'.

 

24th
. My son Ilya came, bringing me oranges and candied fruit. He is reading Lev Nik.'s bachelor diaries (up to 1861), which I copied out long ago.

 

25th
. Ilyusha is such pleasant company when he is in good spirits. Someone has suggested he should travel around the cities of Russia giving lectures about his father.*

 

6th March (St Petersburg)
. I visited Lyova and Dora and dined with them; the children were adorable. I talked on the telephone with N.A. Dobrovolsky about my case in the Senate concerning the manuscripts. He said: “I simply can't understand why they're dragging it out so long.”

 

10th (St Petersburg)
. This morning Dora and I went to the Wanderers' Exhibition. It was very weak in subject matter, and technique too; Repin's
The Duel
, or rather
Single Combat
, isn't nearly as good as his earlier works.

 

11th
. I returned to Yasnaya via Tula—a frosty, overcast day. I found Varya Nagornova here with her daughter Ada. My lodgers Bulgakov and Nina are very pleasant. This evening we read aloud ‘Lermontov and Tolstoy'.

 

12th
. I wrote a letter to the Tsar, asking for a government post for Andryusha. I find this most difficult and disagreeable, but Andryusha is so ill and anxious I was afraid to refuse him. I have sent him the letter to read through.

 

18th
. Slight frost, everything covered with a light layer of snow. Fine weather, dazzling stars, a bright moon. I coached the little girl, worked hard on my new chapter, and this evening we again read ‘Lermontov and Tolstoy'. A letter from Kuzminsky about the favourable outcome of my case in the Senate concerning the manuscripts.

 

30th
. Nina and I started fasting today and went to church. This great mass of peasants is still foreign to me, even though I have
lived with them for almost 52 years. There's something wild and incomprehensible about them.

 

10th April
. 25 visitors came to the house and the grave, then all our peasants arrived to invite me to the grave. But alas I was ill!

 

16th
. Nina and I read my daughter Tanya's book about Maria Montessori,* the Italian who practises free educational methods.

 

10th May
. Visited the grave and took flowers. I met three village children there and took them home, where I gave them sweets and played them the gramophone, but they didn't seem to enjoy themselves. I am reading the letters of the Prelate Feofan.

 

15th (Ascension Day)
. We didn't count the visitors, but I think there must have been about 150. Nina and I let them in. I copied the inventory of things in Lev Nik.'s rooms and felt so sad!

 

18th
. My son Andryusha came. There was an excursion of 62 young girls here and various other visitors, and I showed them round Lev Nik.'s rooms. Towards 8 this evening my son Lyova came with his two sons Kita and Petya.

 

31st
. I copied, visited the grave and went for a long walk. I was sad to hear my sons have started gambling again. Dora says Lyova has lost about 50 thousand. Poor, pregnant, considerate Dora! Lev Nik. was a thousand times right to give his money to the peasants rather than to his sons. It would only have gone on cards and carousing. It's disgusting and pathetic! And it will be even worse after my death! A hot fine day. Nature is delightful, but my soul is depressed. I didn't sleep all night.

 

13th June
. We all drove to the river for a swim, just like the old days, in two separate trips, with the children and governesses and Lyova's three boys, who drove with their father. It was very hot—24° in the shade. They've started mowing the old orchard. When we got home I read
Eugene Onegin
to the boys.

 

19th
. I was engrossed all morning in Pushkin's stories; I haven't looked at them for a long time.

 

2nd July
. I read the newspapers and have neither the time nor inclination for any serious reading. They are all full of Rasputin's murder.*

 

16th
. I read the papers with alarm—is it really war?

 

19th
. This ghastly war will lead to great misery in Russia. Everyone is despondent. People torn from their land and families are talking of a strike: “We won't go to war!” they say. From here they've taken the bailiff, seven horses, the coachman and two workers! And Russia is starving! What will happen!

 

20th
. This morning I sat down to copy my letters. I copied up to December 1900, when Lyova's son little Levushka died. Tanya gave birth to a dead baby girl and so on. And I was with them and wept with them all.

 

21st
. I have a heavy weight on my heart. My son Misha has enlisted and has been sent to Bryansk. They've also taken Karin, our bailiff, and our peasants and horses. Tears and terror on all sides—and all in the name of what?

 

27th
. I wandered around Yasnaya Polyana all day with an aching heart, waiting for Andryusha, who is ill. He wrote that Misha would be in Tula on Tuesday and that I should go there and give him 1,000 rubles. They are enlisting him in the
active
regiments, the cavalry—yet another blow for me. Sasha was here, and is going off to be a nurse. We tenderly said goodbye. It's terrible! Here in the country it's sunny, still and warm.

 

28th
. The news is all dreadful: Lyova has sent his family off to Sweden and is leaving with N.S. Guchkov for the Polish front with the Red Cross. Magnificent hot weather, a lot of mushrooms—and on all sides there are groans and tears. A group of 20 women visitors came to see the grave and the house.

 

29th
. So much suffering—yet we continue to live and endure it! I said goodbye today to Misha, who is off to war! I forced myself not to cry, but it was hard! Andryusha is no cause for joy either: he's having difficulties with his wife, he has bad intestines and bronchitis, poor fellow, and is very thin. I am exhausted in body and soul!

 

1st August
. I didn't sleep last night, and this morning I went to church with Nurse.* The church was filled with women—there were almost no men. The deacon shrieked some incomprehensible words, and it was all very sad! My alienation from the people is sad too; I am the
only lady
amidst this peasant population, and the children regard me as something strange and foreign.

 

5th
. This evening I was shocked by the sad news that Sukhotin had had a second stroke. My poor little Tanya.

 

9th
. I received a telegram announcing the death of Sukhotin. I packed hurriedly and prepared to leave for Kochety. My heart was filled with grief and despair, yet I had to see to everything at home before I left. Poor darling Tanya!

 

10th
. I went by coach to Kochety. They have brought Sukhotin's body home from the Abrikosovs'. Tanya is trying to keep cheerful and is organizing everything, but it breaks my heart to see her so thin and anxious. God help her!

 

11th
. Tanya, little Tanya and I all went for a walk, then sat together. The four boys have arrived to bury their father. My Sasha is here too, and Liza Obolenskaya and our Seryozha. There will be a requiem service.

 

13th
. The Kochety house is empty now. Tanya is being very brave and isn't letting herself go, but it's very hard for her, for she loved her sick old man. Her life will be quite different now and it won't be easy. We are all gripped with terror by the events of this ghastly war!

 

14th
. After our walk today Tanya read us her work
Tanya Tolstaya's Childhood
. It's excellent and most movingly written, and we shed a few tears as we listened to her reading it. She and little Tanya are planning to spend the winter with me. How good that will be. I can hardly believe it!

 

15th
. We went for another walk, and again listened to Tanya reading her memoirs. We saw Dorik and Seryozha Sukhotin off to their regiment—Dorik as a volunteer and Seryozha as an officer. The elder Sukhotin boy, Lev, is distraught, and we are all very sad. I have packed and shall leave tomorrow.

 

22nd
. My sister Tanya arrived this morning, and her husband came for dinner. Today is my birthday; I am 70.

 

7th September
. I wandered about aimlessly; I can't do anything with this frightful war on, and my grief and worry for Tanya, my sons and Dora, who is due to give birth any day. I raked up piles of leaves for cattle bedding, gave the day-labourers their receipts and spent the evening doing accounts with Nina.

 

27th
. My sister is distraught because her son Mitya has also volunteered for the war, as an orderly. Incomprehensible hypnotism! We read aloud Makovitsky's memoirs.

 

30th
. I did some typing for my sister. This evening Bulgakov read us his article protesting against the war.* It is very good.

 

1st October
. I showed various visitors around Lev Nik.'s rooms and the drawing room—some officers from the war, two army doctors and a lady. They were touchingly interested in everything.

 

2nd
. My sister Tanya has left. A beautiful still bright day. I went out and wandered around the estate. People have planted apple trees, gathered up brushwood, raked the dead leaves and swept them into four piles. We read the papers. There were 6 visitors today—some officers and army doctors and two women. They looked round the drawing room and Lev Nik.'s rooms.

 

4th
. My daughter Tanya's 50th birthday. I went to Tula with Nina, and saw my nephew Grisha, Sergei Nikolaevich's son. He has received another post. On the way back I met an entire battery of soldiers and officers who had been to Yasnaya Polyana; I am very sorry I didn't see them and receive them personally. I sent Lyova 1,000 rubles.

 

18th
. The American consulate has informed me that my grandson Misha has been taken prisoner in Milevi
, in Bohemia.*

 

21st
. I received a letter from my brother-in-law Kuzminsky telling me I had won my case in the Senate and giving me some sad family news: Masha is ill, Mitya is off to war, three more sons are already at war and my grandson is wounded.