[394] Living at this time with the Tolstois in Moscow, Countess O. K. Tolstoi, in a letter to V. G. Chertkov on November 22nd, 1899, described Tolstoi’s illness in this way: “Yesterday we lived through a terrible evening and night. In the evening after dinner, Tolstoi went to his room to lie down, and after several minutes we were all attracted by terrible groans from him ... he was taken with severe stomach pains which were very severe from four o’clock in the morning to seven in the evening. He suffered terribly and at first nothing helped.” Tolstoi suffered especially from vomiting which lasted twenty-eight hours. His doctors were P. S. Usev and Prof. M. P. Cherinov. “Both medicine and feeding,” another person wrote to Chertkov from Moscow, December 5, 1899, “is given now by entreaty and persuasion, now by tears and now by deception, which is even more depressing than tears. To-day everything is better: pains and appetite and strength.” Tolstoi got out of bed December 6th and little by little began to walk. But the following days he had pain and felt weakness. [395] An omission in this place in the copy in possession of the editors. [396] This word in the original is underlined twice. [397] From Derzhavin’s Ode, “God.” [398] The exact title of the book by M. A. Engelhardt is _Progress, As an Evolution of Cruelty_, issued by F. F. Pavlenkov, Petrograd, 1899. To the author of this book, M. A. Engelhardt (1858–1882), Tolstoi wrote, in 1882, a very remarkable letter on the problem of non-resistance to evil by violence. [399] The journal, _Niva_. [400] The novel, _The Forged Coupon_. APPENDIX A SHORT SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF TOLSTOI AT THE END OF THE NINETIES BY CONSTANTINE SHOKOR-TROTSKY The present volume of Tolstoi’s Journal covers a period from October 28, 1895, to December, 1899. During this time Tolstoi made in all 170 entries[a1] in the Journal, the greatest number of them falling in the year 1897, and the smallest in 1899. During certain months, Tolstoi made no entries whatever. There were nine such months in the four years; April and August, 1896; June, 1897; September, October and December, 1898; March, May and August, 1899. The greatest number of interruptions in the entries was caused by ill health, sometimes also by intensive work and sometimes on account of spiritual depression. [a1] Of the 170 entries in the present edition, the editors have omitted 102 places (1,707 words) because of their intimate character, and 55 places (1,102 words) on account of the censor. Besides this, in the Notes, one place (9 words) has been omitted on account of its intimate character and 14 places (245 words) on account of the censor. I IMPORTANT EVENTS Of important outer events which had more or less significance for Tolstoi, and to which he responded during this time, the following are to be mentioned:[a2]