chapter XIII

--in the letter to his brother, Count S. N. Tolstoi, on April 20, 1896, Tolstoi under the fresh impression of this opera wrote the following: “Last night I was at the theatre and heard the celebrated new music of Wagner’s opera, _Siegfried_. I could not sit through a single act and I fled from the place like mad, and now I cannot talk calmly about it. It is stupid, unfit for children above seven years of age, a _Punch and Judy_ show, pretentious, feigned, entirely false and without any music whatever. And several thousand sat and pretended to be fascinated.”

[66] Aphrikan Alexandrovich Spier (1837–1890), a remarkable Russian philosopher, who lived many years in Germany and who wrote his works in German: _Thinking and Reality_, _Morality and Religious_, etc. Tolstoi was then reading his principal work, _Denken und Wirklichkeit_ (_Thinking and Reality_)--in a letter of 1896 to Countess S. A. Tolstoi, Tolstoi wrote: “I am reading a newly discovered philosopher, Spier, and am rejoicing.... A very useful book, destroying many superstitions, especially the superstition of materialism.” (_The Letters of Count L. N. Tolstoi to his Wife_, Moscow, 1913, page 510.)

[67] The philosopher’s daughter, Elena Aphrikanovna Spier, who sent her father’s works to Tolstoi.

[68] Grigori Grigorevich Myasoyedov (1835–1912). A celebrated artist, the painter of the picture, “The Reading of the Ordinance, of February 19th” and others; one of the principal initiators and founders of the Society of Travelling Expositions.

[69] Dmitri Dmitrievich Sverbeev, the Governor of Courland, an acquaintance of the Tolstois’.

[70] The cement factory, Gill, within 7 versts of Yasnaya Polyana.

[71] To the Coronation in Moscow there went: Countess S. A. Tolstoi and Countess A. L. Tolstoi; while Countess T. L. Tolstoi went to Sweden for the coming marriage in Stockholm of Count L. L. Tolstoi and D. Ph. Westerlund.

[72] The branch post office, 7 versts from Yasnaya Polyana.

[73] Died in 1913.

[74] The well-known publisher of _Novoe Vremia_, M. O. Menshikov, a contributor at that time to the liberal magazine, _Knizhki Nedieli_, where among other things, he occupied himself with popularizing Tolstoi’s ideas. In the article “The Errors of Fear,” printed in that magazine in 1896 (Nos. IV to VI) Menshikov sharply condemned certain governmental repressions of the time. For this article the magazine received a warning. Towards the later journalistic activities of Menshikov, Tolstoi took a critical attitude.

[75] Fedior Alexeievich Strakhov, a friend, who shared the views of Tolstoi, author of philosophic articles published by _Posrednik_ under the titles _Beyond Political Interests_, _The Search For Truth_. _Posrednik_ also published a collection of articles of various thinkers compiled by him under the title _Spirit and Matter_ (against materialism).

Several of his other articles were issued abroad. For Tolstoi’s review of the books of F. A. Strakhov see in Journal, August 15, 1910.

[76] Nicholai Nicholaievich Strakhov (died in January of this year).

[77] With F. A. Strakhov.

[78] Timofei Nicholaievich Granovsky (1813–1855), a Russian historian, a professor at the Moscow University.

[79] Vissarion Grigorevich Bielinsky (1810–1848), the critic--see in Journal, March 7, 1899, a comparison between Bielinsky and Gogol.

[80] Alexander Alexandrovich Herzen (1812–1870), a great writer. From 1847 to his death he lived abroad as an exile. His collected works with censor deletions have been published in Russia only in 1905. Tolstoi as early as August 4, 1860, wrote in his Journal, “Herzen, a scattered mind, sickly ambition. But his broadness, skilfulness, kindness and refinement is Russian.” Soon after, in the beginning of 1861, Tolstoi, being abroad, spent a month in London, where he saw Herzen almost daily. In addition to the opinion expressed in this note of Tolstoi’s about Herzen, it should be noted that afterwards Tolstoi, appreciating him from another point of view, acknowledged a broad educational significance to his works (see, for example, Journal, October 12, 1895). In the letters to V. G. Chertkov of February 9, 1888, and to N. N. Gay of February 13 of the same year, Tolstoi called Herzen “a man remarkable in strength, in mind and in sincerity” and expressed regret that his works were forbidden in Russia, as the reading of them, according to his opinion, would be very instructive to the youth.

[81] Nicholai Gavrilovich Chernishevsky (1828–1889) and Nicholai Alexandrovich Dobroliubov (1836–1861), Russian critics. Tolstoi became acquainted with Chernishevsky when he published his works in _Sovremennik_, which was edited by Chernishevsky.

[82] Five-year-old daughter of F. A. Strakhov.

[83] _Declaration of Faith_, later re-named _The Christian Doctrine_.

[84] The estate of Tolstoi’s brother, S. N. Tolstoi, in the district of Krapivensk, in the Government of Tula, 35 versts from Yasnaya Polyana.

[85] Count Sergei Nicholaievich Tolstoi (1826–1904). See for him in _Biography of L. N. Tolstoi_ by P. Biriukov and in _My Recollections_ by Count I. L. Tolstoi, Moscow, 1914.

[86] The daughters of Count S. N. Tolstoi: Vera, Varvara and Maria Sergievna.

[87] Charles Salomon, the translator of some of Tolstoi’s works into French, and a professor of the Russian language in the higher institutions in Paris.

[88] Sergei Ivanovich Tanyeev (1856–1915), composer, at one time director at the Moscow Conservatory, an acquaintance of the Tolstoi family, who lived three summers (1894–1896) in Yasnaya Polyana.

[89] On the Khodinka field at the time of the coronation celebration of May 18, 1896. In the beginning of the year 1910, Tolstoi wrote a little story called _Khodinka_, printed for the first time in his _Posthumous Literary Works_, Volume III, published by A. L. Tolstoi, Moscow, 1902.

[90] Timofei Nicholaievich Bondarev (1820–1898), a peasant of the district of the Don. In 1867 he was exiled to Siberia for conversion to the Jewish faith and lived in the district of Minusinsk, in the Province of Yeniseisk, to the end of his life. Wrote a work called _Industriousness and Parasitism, or The Triumph of the Agricultural Worker_ (issued with abbreviations in 1906 in Petrograd by _Posrednik_,) in which he proved the moral obligation of each man to do agricultural work. Tolstoi wrote a long introduction to this work. As to the impression which this work produced on Tolstoi, he himself wrote in his book _What Then Shall We Do?_ (1884–1886) the following: “In all my life, two Russian thinkers had upon me a great moral influence and enriched my thought and clarified my philosophy. These people were not Russian poets, scholars, preachers--they were two remarkable men who are now living, and who all their life laboured in the _muzhik_ labour of peasants, Siutaev and Bondarev.” In his letter here mentioned to Bondarev, Tolstoi touched upon those religious problems which Bondarev asked him. For more details about Bondarev see in the article of C. S. Shokhor-Trotsky: “Siutaev and Bondarev” (in the _Tolstoi Annual_, 1913), Petrograd, 1914, issued by the Tolstoi Museum Society, following which are printed ten letters by Tolstoi to Bondarev and some writings of Bondarev himself.

[91] _My Refusal From Military Service, The Memoirs of an Army Physician_, issued by _The Free Press_, 1898, England. Tolstoi read this work even before, in manuscript, and at this time probably was re-reading it. In his letter to A. A. Shkarvan of December 16, 1895, Tolstoi wrote: “Your memoirs are interesting and important to the highest degree. I read them with spiritual joy and was touched.”

[92] See Note 29.

[93] Stephane Mallarmé (1842–1898), French poet, considered one of the most prominent Symbolists. For a more detailed opinion of him by Tolstoi, see his book, _What Is Art?_