Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustration. See 40260-h.htm or 40260-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/40260/40260-h/40260-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/40260/40260-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See http://archive.org/details/cu31924027487747 [Illustration: Leo Tolstoy, 1910] THE LAST DAYS OF TOLSTOY by VLADIMIR TCHERTKOFF Translated from the Russian by Nathalie A. Duddington 1922 London: William Heinemann Printed in Great Britain CONTENTS PAGE Introduction ix Public opinion demands that facts with regard to Tolstoy's going away should be revealed--The conditions of Tolstoy's life were a test of his consistency--Why is it necessary to publish the circumstances of his going away?--The importance of Tolstoy's example--Misrepresentation of the causes of his going away--The moral duty of his friends to defend his memory--My task. PART I WHY TOLSTOY DID NOT LEAVE HIS HOME 1 (Letter to H. Dosev) Dosev's mistake, common to many--Tolstoy's true motives--His independence of the opinion of men--The limit of his yielding--In order to go away he had to feel the necessity for doing so--It was easier to go than to remain--Tolstoy's sufferings at Yasnaya Polyana (from his intimate diary)--The mistake of passing censure upon his life at Yasnaya--He fulfilled that which God required of him--His love for his wife and his confidence in her--His self-sacrifice for her sake--We must believe in his conscientiousness--The heroism of his life in his family. PART II WHY TOLSTOY WENT AWAY Chapter I.--The conditions of life at Yasnaya Polyana 18 Wealthy surroundings--False position in the eyes of men--Spiritual break with his wife. Chapter II.--Change for the worse in his wife's attitude to him 26 Change for the worse in the conditions of life at Yasnaya with regard to the management of the estate, to the relations with the peasants, and in his wife's attitude to him--Tolstoy gives up landed property--His readiness to go away and the causes of his delay in making a final decision. Chapter III.--The history of the will 32 Tolstoy's attitude to property in general and to literary property in particular--His differences with his wife on that score--Tolstoy's firmness in renouncing the copyright of his works--His wife's opposition--Short history of the drawing up of the will. Chapter IV.--Intervals of rest--in other people's houses 48 Mental and physical revival--Creative work. Chapter V.--The last period 52 Summer of 1910--Period of suffering that undermined his health.