Classics of Russian Literature | Tolstoy the Preacher (Lecture 21)

Lecture 21: From the 1880s onward, Tolstoy became more and more engrossed in the moral and religious problems he saw within and around him. He even went so far as to renounce and condemn his own masterpieces as vain incense burned at a false altar. Even then, however, he defined art marvelously as the “chut’ chut’” (that which is barely, barely expressed).

In 1886 came The Death of Ivan Il’ich, and in 1891 appeared The Kreutzer Sonata, two masterpieces of the novella form that rivaled both Gogol’ and Dostoevsky. In this period, we see Tolstoy as he was masterfully described by Gorky: “Tolstoy and God are like two bears in the same den.” His home life became increasingly acrimonious, as his wife and most of his seven children started to do battle with the previously great literary artist, who now seemed to be running for the office of God Almighty. The climax came in 1910, when he secretly ran away from wife and home, contracted pneumonia on the train, and died in the stationmaster’s office at the station in Astapovo - in biblical language: “Zekher Tsaddik L’v’rokhoh” (“The memory of the righteous is for blessing”).

Suggested Reading:
R. F. Christian, Tolstoy: A Critical Introduction.
Donna Tussing Orwin, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Tolstoy.