The Last Days of TolstoyChertkov, V. G. (Vladimir Grigorevich)
General
The Last Days of Tolstoy
Chertkov, V. G. (Vladimir Grigorevich)
Tolstoy, Leo, graf, 1828-1910
One cannot but recognise Tolstoy's conspicuous services in all this.
And though he acted as he did without considering what bearing this
would have on the consciousness of men, merely striving not to
let himself be drawn into an action contrary to his conscience,
nevertheless this first renunciation of literary property on the part
of one of the greatest writers of the world undoubtedly has a vast
significance for humanity.
If in my present brief account of Tolstoy's leaving home I have
had to dwell rather minutely upon the question of his will, it
is because all the threads of the complicated conditions and
circumstances which caused his departure meet about that central
question. It is true that some of those near to Leo Nikolaevitch have
tried to persuade themselves that Sofya Andreyevna's attitude to him,
which made it impossible for him to remain longer with her, was
chiefly provoked by property interests not connected with his will.
They ascribe her conduct to various causes and principally to her
neurotic condition and morbid, abnormal jealousy. Although putting
the matter in such a light is undoubtedly due to affectionate
goodwill to Sofya Andreyevna, I consider it my duty to protest
against such an interpretation most decisively in the interests of
truth, which here as everywhere is more important than anything.
We ought not to hide from ourselves that there are more than a
sufficient quantity of facts going to prove that Sofya Andreyevna in
this case acted first of all, and most of all, under the influence of
feelings and considerations immediately concerned with the material
prosperity of her numerous family, consisting, as she was continually
reminding people, of twenty-eight persons, counting children and
grandchildren. It is essential to keep this circumstance in view in
order to have a correct understanding of the attitude of Leo
Nikolaevitch to his will.
True love for people dead and alive alike is not shown by concealing
their mistakes and failures from oneself and others, but in knowing
how, in spite of all the undesirable qualities which every one of us
has in sufficient quantity, to behave to one another with compassion
and tolerance, recognising that everyone is responsible for all. Then
we shall not try to pass by the weak spots without noticing them, or
to smear over the cracks on the outside, but shall, on the contrary,
display them in order that they may be corrected by the efforts of
all.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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