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MISCELLANY

THE MURDER OF A forensic investigation By Elif Batuman

The International Tolstoy Con- interest the final chapters, “Last Will dark corner? And so a death was tak- ference lasts four days and is held on and Testament” and “Flight.” Then I en for granted that in fact merited clos- the grounds of , the es- checked out a treatise on poisonous er examination.” tate where Tolstoy was born, lived plants and skimmed through it outside I was rather pleased by my propos- most of his life, al, which I titled wrote “Did Tolstoy Die of and , Natural Causes or and is buried. Was He Murdered?: Once, when I was A Forensic Investi- a graduate student, gation,” and which a paper of mine included a survey of was accepted at the individuals who had conference. At the motive and oppor- time, my department tunity to effect Tol- awarded two kinds of stoy’s death: travel grants: $1,000 Arguably Russia’s most for presenting a pa- controversial public fig- per at an interna- ure, Tolstoy was not tional conference or without powerful ene- $2,500 for interna- mies. “More letters tional field research. threatening ,” My needs clearly fell he noted in 1897, into the first catego- when his defense of the Dukhobor sect* ry, but with an extra drew loud protests from $1,500 on the line, the Orthodox Church I decided to have a and Tsar Nikolai II, go at writing a field- who even had Tolstoy research proposal. Surely there was at the coffee stand. Finally, I went back followed by the secret police. some mystery that could only be solved inside and plugged in my laptop. As is often the case, Tolstoy’s enemies at Tolstoy’s house? “Tolstoy died in November 1910 at I rode my bicycle through blinding the provincial train station of Astapo- * summer sunshine to the library and vo, under what can only be described The Dukhobors—literally, Spirit Wrestlers— were a Russian peasant religious sect whose spent several hours shut up in my re- as strange circumstances,” I typed. “But tenets included egalitarianism, pacifism, and frigerated, fluorescent-lit carrel, with the strangeness of these circumstances the rejection of all written scripture in favor of a copy of Henri Troyat’s 700-page bi- was immediately assimilated into the an oral body of knowledge called the “Living ography Tolstoy. I read with particular broader context of Tolstoy’s life and Book.” When they were persecuted for their re- fusal to fight in the Russo-Turkish war, Tol- work. After all, had anyone really ex- stoy donated all the proceeds from his Elif Batuman is a writer in San Francisco. pected the author of The Death of Ivan Resurrection to finance their emigration to This is her first article for Harper’s Magazine. Ilyich to drop dead quietly, in some Canada in 1899.

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were no more alarming than his so- stoy’s favorite hut, and avoided the vi- A doctrinaire known for his “heart- called friends, for instance, the pilgrims tiated descendants of Tolstoy’s favorite less indifference to human contingen- who swarmed Yasnaya Polyana: a shift- geese: one of these almost feral crea- cies,” Chertkov made it his mission to ing mass of philosophers, drifters, and tures had bitten a cultural semiotician. bring Tolstoy’s entire life and work into desperados, collectively referred to by Every morning I called Aeroflot to accord with the principles of Tolstoy- the domestic staff as “the Dark Ones.” These volatile characters included ask about my suitcase. “Oh, it’s you,” anism. He became Tolstoy’s constant a morphine addict who had written a sighed the clerk. “Yes, I have your re- companion and soon gained editorial mathematical proof of Christianity; a quest right here. Address: Yasnaya control over all of his new writings— barefoot Swedish septuagenarian who Polyana, Tolstoy’s house. When we including the diaries, which treated the preached sartorial “simplicity” and who find the suitcase we will send it to you. Tolstoys’ conjugal life in great detail. eventually had to be driven away “be- In the meantime, are you familiar with Sonya never forgave her husband. The cause he was beginning to be indecent”; our Russian phrase resigna- Tolstoys began to fight constantly, long and a blind Old Believer who pursued tion of the soul?” into the night. Their shouting and sob- the sound of Tolstoy’s footsteps, shout- bing would make the walls shake. Tol- ing, “Liar! Hypocrite!” On the first morning of talks, a stoy would bellow that he was fleeing to Meanwhile, within the family cir- cle, Tolstoy’s will was the subject of Malevich scholar read a paper about America; Sonya would run screaming bitter contention . . . Tolstoy’s iconoclasm and Malevich’s into the garden, threatening suicide. Red Rectangle. He said that Nikolai According to Tolstoy’s secretary, “You are certainly my most entertaining Rostov was the Red Rectangle. For Chertkov was succeeding in his plan: student,” said my adviser when I told the rest of the day he sat with his head to achieve “the moral destruction of her my theory. “Tolstoy—murdered! buried in his hands in a posture of great Tolstoy’s wife in order to get control of Ha! Ha! Ha! The man was eighty-two suffering. Next an enormous Russian his manuscripts.” During this stormy years old, with a history of stroke!” textologist in an enormous gray dress period in his marriage, Tolstoy wrote “That’s exactly what would make expounded at enormous length upon a —a novella in it the perfect crime,” I explained new study of early variants of War and which a husband resembling Tolstoy patiently. Peace. Fixing her eyes in the middle brutally murders a wife resembling The department was not convinced. distance, consulting no notes, she Sonya. Anyone investigating foul play They did, however, give me the chanted in a half-pleading, half- in the death of Tolstoy would find “ $1,000 grant to present declaratory tone, like somebody much to mull over in The my paper. proposing an hour-long toast. Kreutzer Sonata. Just when she seemed about to sit On the day of my flight to down, she bounced back up and added: That evening at the academicians’ , I was late to the airport. “We will hear more about these very dormitory, I went out onto my balcony Check-in was already closed. Although interesting editions on Thursday! . . . if and lit a cigarette. A few minutes lat- I was eventually let onto the plane, we are still alive.” It was fashionable er, the door of the adjacent balcony my suitcase was not, and it subse- among International Tolstoy Schol- opened. The balconies were extreme- quently vanished altogether from the ars to punctuate all statements about ly close, the railings separated by a mere Aeroflot informational system. Air the future with this disclaimer, an al- ten inches of black space. An elderly travel is like death: everything is tak- lusion to Tolstoy’s later diaries. After woman stepped outside and stood very en from you. his religious rebirth in 1881, Tolstoy still, gazing sternly into the distance, ap- Because there are no clothing stores changed his practice of ending each parently pursuing her own thoughts in Yasnaya Polyana, I was obliged to diary entry with a plan for the next about Tolstoy. Abruptly she turned to wear, for all four days of the confer- day, replacing it with the phrase “if I me. “Would you be so kind as to give ence, the same clothes in which I had am alive.” It occurred to me that ever me a light?” she asked. traveled: flip-flops, sweatpants, and a since 1881 Tolstoy had always known I fished a matchbook from my pock- flannel shirt. I had hoped to sleep on he would be murdered. et, lit a match, cupped my hand around the plane and had dressed accordingly. At the time of his conversion Tol- it, and held it over her balcony. She Some International Tolstoy Scholars stoy resolved to give away all his copy- leaned over, ignited a Kent Light, and assumed that I was a Tolstoyan—that, rights “to the people.” The decision began puffing away. I decided to take like Tolstoy and his followers, I had pitted him in “a struggle to the death” advantage of this moment of human taken a vow to walk around in sandals against his wife, Sonya, who managed contact to ask for shampoo. (There and wear the same peasant shirt all day the household finances and who, over wasn’t any in our bathrooms, and mine and all night. the years, bore Tolstoy a total of thir- was lost somewhere with my suitcase.) We were some twenty-five in num- teen . Tolstoy eventually But when I mentioned shampoo, some ber, the International Tolstoy Schol- ceded Sonya the copyrights for all his strong emotion flickered across the old ars. Together, between talks on pre-1881 works but turned the rest woman’s face. Fear? Annoyance? Ha- Tolstoy, we wandered through Tol- over to one of the Dark Ones, Vladi- tred? I consoled myself that I was pro- stoy’s house and Tolstoy’s garden, sat mir Chertkov, an aristocrat-turned- viding her an opportunity to practice on Tolstoy’s favorite bench, admired Tolstoyan whose name contains the resignation of the soul. Tolstoy’s beehives, marveled at Tol- Russian word for “devil” (chert). “Just a minute,” said my neighbor

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;`jZfm\iFe\Pfle^ resignedly, as if she had read my “Yes! Clearly, those were Tolstoy’s thoughts. She set down her cigarette in favorite pages!” =Xd`cpËjJ\XiZ_]fiX a glass ashtray. The thread of smoke The morning panel was devoted to climbed up into the windless night. I comparisons of Tolstoy and Rousseau. J`dgc\iC`]\%%% ducked into my room to find a sham- I tried to pay attention, but I couldn’t poo receptacle, choosing a ceramic mug stop thinking about snakes. Perhaps =fliJ\Xjfejf] with a picture of the historic white Tolstoy had been killed by some kind C`m`e^`ek_\P\Xi(0'' gates of Yasnaya Polyana. Under the of venom? picture was a quotation from L. N. Tol- “The French critic Roland Barthes stoy, about how he was unable to imag- has said that the least productive sub- ine a Russia with no Yasnaya Polyana. ject in literary criticism is the dialogue I held the mug over the narrow between authors,” began the second chasm, and my neighbor poured in speaker. “Nonetheless, today I am go- some sudsy water from a small plastic ing to talk about Tolstoy and Rousseau.” in bottle. I realized then that she was shar- I remembered a Sherlock Holmes See You ing with me literally her last drops of story in which an heiress in Surrey is a Hundred shampoo, which she had mixed with found in the throes of a fatal conniption, YearS water in order to make them last longer. gasping, “It was the band! The speckled I thanked her as warmly as I knew how. band!” Dr. Watson assumes that she 9\TN[ DN_Q She responded with a dignified nod. was killed by a band of gypsies who were We stood a moment in silence. camping on the property and who wore “Do you have any cats or dogs?” she polka-dotted kerchiefs. But Watson is asked finally. wrong. Her words actually refer to a “No,” I said. “And you?” rare spotted Indian adder, introduced to “In Moscow, I have a mar- the heiress’s bedroom through a venti- velous cat.” lation shaft by her wicked stepfather. The heiress’s dying words, “the here are no cats at the Tolstoy speckled band,” represent one of the “estateT at Yasnaya Polyana,” begins early instances of the “clue” in detec- “From learning the mysterious ways Amy Mandelker’s well-known study tive fiction. Often, a clue is a signifier of farm animals to deciphering the Framing Anna Karenina: with multiple significations: a band of riddles of a wood-burning stove, gypsies, a handkerchief, an adder. But from realizing the possibility Curled, or rather, coiled in the sunny if the “speckled band” is a clue, I won- patches in the Tolstoy house, protect- dered drowsily, what is the snake? There of self-sufficiency to becoming ing it from pestilential infestations, in- was a loud noise, and I jerked upright. part of a community ... we follow stead of the expected feline emblems The Tolstoy International Scholars this family’s story ... of domesticity . . . [are] snakes. . . . The ancestors of these ophidian house pets were applauding. The second speaker `e]fid\[k_ifl^_flkYpNXi[Ëj were adopted by Tolstoy’s ailuropho- had finished her talk and was pushing bic wife, Sophia Andreevna [Sonya], the microphone along the conference nipj\ej\f]_ldfi# to rid the house of rodents. table to her neighbor. “The most important element of na- gXjj`fe#Xe[fYa\Zk`m`kp%É I was contemplating these lines on the ture, for both Tolstoy and —Library Journal, Starred Review second morning of talks, when I count- Rousseau, was—air.” ed a total of four cats actually inside the ÈDfi\i\Xc#Xe[dfi\i\nXi[`e^# conference room. That said, in fair- walked along the birch-lined al- ness to Mandelker, you couldn’t re- leysI of Yasnaya Polyana, looking for k_XeXepjlim`mXcKMj_fn%É proach Yasnaya Polyana for a short- clues. Snakes were swimming in the —Publishers Weekly age of snakes. At breakfast, one pond, making a rippling pattern. Every- historian had described his experience thing here was a museum. The snakes È8c`m\cpkXc\# researching the marginalia in Tolstoy’s are the genetic snake museum. The flies told with admirable honesty.” editions of Kant: he had seen a snake buzz across generations; I know they —Raleigh News & Observer right there in the archive. know, but they won’t tell me. I walked “Were there at least any good mar- along the winding path to Tolstoy’s ginalia?” someone asked. grave: a grassy lump, resembling a ÈK_`j`jfe\f]k_\Y\jkYffbj “No. He didn’t write anything in Christmas log. I stared at it for three @Ëm\\m\ii\X[%É the margins at all,” the historian said. minutes. I thought I saw it move. Lat- —Jim Packard, Wisconsin Public Radio He paused, before adding tri- er, near Tolstoy’s apiary, I sat on a umphantly, “But the books fell open to bench, not Tolstoy’s favorite, and certain pages!” looked in the garbage can. It was full of nnn%cf^XenXi[%Zfd “Oh?” cigarette butts and cucumber peels. N_\i\m\igXg\iYXZbj Xi\jfc[ MISCELLANY 47

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On a tree stump in these very woods sky. After a strenuous twenty-six-hour In Anna Karenina, he began, Tolstoy in 1909, Tolstoy signed a secret will. journey, the two arrived in Sha- represents lawn tennis in a harshly He left all his copyrights in the con- mardino, where Tolstoy’s sister Marya negative light. Anna and Vronsky swat trol of Chertkov and of his youngest was a nun. Tolstoy decided to spend futilely at the tiny ball, poised on the daughter, Sasha, a fervent Tolstoyan. the remainder of his life here, in a rent- edge of a vast spiritual and moral abyss. This had long been Sonya’s worst fear— ed hut. But the very next day he was When he wrote that scene, Tolstoy “You want to give all your rights to joined by Sasha, who, together with himself had never played tennis, which Chertkov and let your grandchildren Dr. Makovitsky, convinced the fever- he only knew of as an English fad. At starve to death!”—and she addressed ish writer that he ought to run away to the age of sixty-eight, Tolstoy was giv- it through a rigorous program of espi- the Caucasus. The little party left on en a tennis racket and taught the rules onage and domestic sleuth work. She October 31, in a second-class train car- of the game. He became an instant once spent an entire afternoon lying in riage, purchasing their tickets from sta- tennis addict. a ditch, watching the entrance to the es- tion to station to avoid pursuit. “No other writer was as prone to tate with binoculars. Tolstoy’s fever mounted. He shook great contradictions.” All summer long, One afternoon in September 1910, with chills. By the time they reached Tolstoy played tennis for three hours Sonya marched into Tolstoy’s study Astapovo, he was too ill to travel. A every day. No opponent could rival with a child’s cap pistol and shot sickroom was made up for him in the Tolstoy’s indefatigable thirst for the Chertkov’s picture, which she then tore stationmaster’s house. Here Tolstoy game; his guests and children would into pieces and flushed down the toilet. suffered fever, delirium, convulsions, take turns playing against him. When Tolstoy came into the room, she loss of consciousness, shooting head The International Tolstoy Scholars fired the pistol again, just to frighten pains, ringing in the ears, delusions, wondered at Tolstoy’s athleticism. He him. Another day, Sonya shrieked, “I difficulty breathing, hiccups, an irreg- should have lived to see eighty-five, shall kill Chertkov! I’ll have him poi- ular and elevated pulse, tormenting ninety, one hundred! soned! It’s either him or me!” thirst, thickening of the tongue, dis- It was also during his sixties that On the afternoon of October 3, Tol- orientation, and memory loss. Tolstoy learned how to ride a bicycle. stoy fell into a fit. His jaws moved During his last days, Tolstoy fre- He took his first lesson exactly one spasmodically, and he uttered mooing quently announced that he had written month after the death of his and noises, interspersed with words from an something new and wanted to give dic- Sonya’s beloved youngest son. Both article he was writing about socialism: tation. Then he would utter either the bicycle and an introductory lesson “Faith . . . reason . . . religion . . . state.” He nothing at all or an inarticulate jumble were a gift from the Moscow Society of then suffered convulsions so violent of words. “Read to me what I have Velocipede-Lovers. One can only guess that three grown men were unable to re- said,” he would order Sasha. “What how Sonya felt, in her mourning, to strain him. After five convulsions, Tol- did I write?” He once became so angry see her husband pedaling along the stoy fell asleep. He woke up the next that he began to wrestle with her, garden paths. “Tolstoy has learned to morning, seemingly recovered. shouting, “Let me go; how dare you ride a bicycle,” Chertkov noted at that A few days later, Tolstoy received a hold me! Let me go!” time. “Is this not inconsis- letter from Chertkov and refused to let Dr. Makovitsky’s diagnosis was tent with Christian ideals?” Sonya see it. Sonya flew into a rage catarrhal pneumonia. and renewed her accusations about the Sonya arrived at Astapovo on No- On the last day of talks, wearing secret will. “Not only does her behav- vember 2. She was not allowed to en- my Tolstoyan costume and flip-flops, I ior toward me fail to express her love,” ter the stationmaster’s house and took took my place at the long table and Tolstoy wrote of Sonya, “but its evi- up residence in a nearby train car. If read my paper about the double plot in dent object is to kill me.” Tolstoy fled Tolstoy recovered and tried to flee Anna Karenina. It ended with a com- to his study and tried to distract him- abroad, she decided, she would pay parison of Tolstoy’s novel to Alice in self by reading The Brothers Karama- 5,000 rubles to have him followed by Wonderland, which provoked contro- zov: “Which of the two families, Kara- a private detective. versy, since I had no proof that Tolstoy mazov or Tolstoy, was the more Tolstoy’s condition worsened. He had read Alice in Wonderland by the horrible?” he asked. In Tolstoy’s view, breathed with great strain, producing time he wrote Anna Karenina. The Brothers Karamazov was “anti- fearsome wheezing sounds. He forgot “Well, Alice in Wonderland was artistic, superficial, attitudinizing, ir- how to use his pocket watch. In a final published in 1865,” I said, trying to relevant to the great problems.” period of lucidity on November 6, he ignore a romance that was being en- At three in the morning on October said to his daughters, “I advise you to acted, just outside the window, by 28, Tolstoy woke to the sound of Sonya remember this: there are many people two of the descendants of Tolstoy’s riffling through his desk drawers. His on earth besides Lev Nikolayevich.” horses. “It’s well known that Tolstoy heart began pounding wildly. It was He died of respiratory failure liked to receive all the latest English the last straw. The sun had not yet on November 7. books by mail.” risen when the great writer, gripping an “Tolstoy had a copy of Alice in Won- electric flashlight, left Yasnaya Polyana On the third day of the Interna- derland in his personal library,” said for good. He was accompanied by his tional Tolstoy Conference, a profes- one of the archivists. doctor, a Tolstoyan called Makovit- sor from Yale read a paper on tennis. “But it’s an 1893 edition,” objected

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C9HIG::IN the conference organizer. “It’s inscribed amine the ground. I was looking for I>H8=8:CI:G;DGI=:6GIH to his daughter Sasha, and Sasha wasn’t Hyoscyamus niger, a toxic plant known JCI:G7:G<ED:IGN8:CI:G born until 1884.” as henbane or stinking nightshade that “So Tolstoy hadn’t read Alice in is native to Eurasia. 1873!” an old man called from the Henbane contains the toxin at- back of the room. ropine, which is associated with near- “Well, you never know,” said the ly all of Tolstoy’s symptoms, including

archivist. “He might have read it ear- fever, intense thirst, delirium, delu- CHARLES SIMIC T.C. BOYLE KAY RYAN ISABE lier and then bought a new copy to sions, disorientation, rapid pulse, L ALLENDE give to Sasha.” convulsions, difficulty breathing, com- THE “And there might be mushrooms bativeness, incoherence, inability to growing in my mouth—except then speak, memory loss, disturbances of OF it wouldn’t be a mouth but a whole vision, respiratory failure, and car- VOICE garden!” retorted the old man. diopulmonary arrest. A particularly dis- LITERATURE One of the Rousseau experts raised tinctive feature of atropine poisoning her hand. “If Anna represents Alice, is that it dilates the pupils and causes &%"25!29 and Levin represents the White Rab- sensitivity to light. In this context, TUE 3 The Tenth Muse with bit,” she said, “then who is Vronsky?” Chertkov’s memoir contains a sugges- Kay Ryan, featuring I tried to explain that I wasn’t sug- tive observation: “Tolstoy—to the Sarah Lindsay, gesting a one-to-one correspondence amazement of his doctors—continued Kevin McFadden between every character in Alice in to show signs of consciousness to the and Atsuro Riley Wonderland and Anna Karenina. The very end . . . by turning away from the light THU 5 Czech Counterpoints: Rousseau expert stared at me. “Any- that was shining directly into his eyes.” Leoš JanácÞek and way,” I concluded, “it’s Oblonsky (Italics mine.) Milan Kundera with whom I was comparing to the White Nearly anyone might have slipped members of The Rabbit—not Levin.” henbane into Tolstoy’s tea (of which he Cleveland Orchestra She frowned. “So Vronsky is the drank large quantities). Chertkov, for MON 9 T.C. Boyle and White Rabbit?” example, in concert with Dr. Makovit- Jayne Anne Phillips “Vronsky is the Mad Hatter!” some- sky. They, the fanatical Tolstoyans, -!2#( one shouted. had motive enough: What if Tolstoy re- MON 2 Julia Hartwig and The conference organizer rose to pented and changed his will again? Charles Simic her feet. “I think we can continue What if, in his dotage, by some new THU 12 Rae Armantrout this interesting discussion weakness, he contradicted the princi- and Cole Swensen over tea.” ples of Tolstoyanism? FRI 20 Ann Beattie (1 pm) Sonya had, in addition to motive, a n the crush at the tea table, I was known interest in poisons. “I have con- MON 23 An Evening of Shakespeare: Hamlet Iapproached by the archivist, who pat- sulted Florinsky’s book on medicine ted my shoulder. “I’m sure Tolstoy read to see what the effects of opium poi- THU 26 The Critic’s Voice I: Daniel Mendelsohn Alice in Wonderland before 1873,” she soning would be,” she wrote in her di- on Cavafy said. “Also, we received a police re- ary in 1910. “First excitement, then port today. A certain suitcase was de- lethargy. No antidote.” Then there were MON 30 Gogol at 200 with Ken Kalfus, livered and is being held in security.” the Tolstoys’ sons. Although the Gary Saul Morson She directed me to the security daughters tended to side with Tolstoy, and Gary Shteyngart holding area, which was inside one of the sons, who were usually short on the historic white gate-towers of money, backed their mother. In 1910, !02), Yasnaya Polyana—the very towers de- Sonya boasted that even if Tolstoy had MON 6 Natasha Trethewey picted on the mug that I had used to written a secret will she and the and Charles Wright solicit shampoo. As the Keebler Elf would have it thrown out: “We shall MON 13 Isabel Allende and factory is hidden inside a hollow tree, prove that he had become feeble- Can Xue so was an entire security department minded toward the end and had a se- ARE YOU 35 OR YOUNGER? concealed within this gatepost. The ries of strokes. . . . We will prove that Buy tickets to Reading Series events mug, it seemed, had been a clue. Next he was forced into writing that will in for just $10. Availability is limited. to one of the officers’ steel desks, un- a moment of mental incapacity.” GO TO WWW.92Y.ORG/POETRY der a framed portrait of Tolstoy, sat Perhaps Sonya had used atropine to FOR COMPLETE SCHEDULE. my suitcase. It had arrived two days simulate the effects of a stroke. She ORDER TICKETS ONLINE, earlier, but the officers hadn’t known might not have intended to kill her CALL 212.415.5500 OR whose it was. I signed a form and husband—just to furnish grounds to STOP BY THE BOX OFFICE.

dragged the suitcase over moss and invalidate his will. But in his atropine- 92nd Street Y tree roots back toward the conference induced delirium, Tolstoy had em- Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street An agency of UJA-Federation hall. It was a good opportunity to ex- barked on a bizarre and fatal flight. Media Partner:

MISCELLANY 49

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After Tolstoy’s death, Sonya, sup- corpse!” he shouts, slamming his glass three days and nights: what was Tol- ported by a pension from the tsar, tried on the table. Eventually, Fyodor’s iden- stoy’s God if not a living corpse? And to fight Sasha and Chertkov for the tity comes to light, and Liza is arrest- what was Tolstoy? copyrights. History opposed her in the ed for bigamy. In despair, Fyodor shoots I clapped until my palms form of the Great War, followed by himself. becomes stung. the 1917 revolution. Sonya and Sasha just an ordinary corpse. were finally reconciled during the The Living Corpse was based on the The banquet that night lasted famine of 1918–19. Of her mother at true story of an alcoholic named until ten or eleven. Yasnaya Polyana this time, Sasha later recalled, “She Gimer who had faked his own suicide is in Tula province—a famous center seemed strangely indifferent to money, and been sentenced to Siberia. The of accordion production—and enter- luxury, things she liked so much be- Moscow Art Theater wanted to stage tainment was provided by students fore.” On her deathbed, Sonya made a it, but Tolstoy kept making excuses. from a local accordion school: boys strange confession. “‘I want to tell you,’ “It has seventeen acts,” he said. “It aged six to fifteen, already able to she said, breathing heavily and inter- needs a revolving stage.” The real play the accordion with all the man- rupted by spasms of coughing, ‘I reason for Tolstoy’s refusal came to nerisms of genial, nostalgic old men. know that I was the cause light only much later. Gimer, it Even the tiniest of the boys, playing of your father’s death.’” seems, had somehow learned that a on the tiniest doll-sized accordion, play had been written about him, smiled knowingly, nodded, and even Of all the papers at the confer- and, upon his return from Siberia, he winked at the audience. ence, the most mysterious was about presented himself at Yasnaya Polyana. Before the banquet, I had stopped at Tolstoy’s little-read play The Living Tolstoy took the unhappy man in the dormitory, where I took a shower Corpse. This paper was delivered by hand, persuaded him to give up drink, and put on a linen dress. Many of the a septuagenarian with large, watery and found him a job in the very court International Tolstoy Scholars con- gray eyes, an émigré to Canada from that had convicted him. In light of gratulated me on my change of cos- somewhere in Northern Europe, Gimer’s “resurrection,” Tolstoy con- tume. Some of them had really thought well-liked both for his bombastic so- signed The Living Corpse to a drawer. that I didn’t own any other clothes. ciability and for his generosity with This strange story has an even A White Russian from shook my the bottle of single-malt scotch he stranger epilogue. As Tolstoy lay in hand. “You should change three times carried in his suitcase. Everyone fever in 1908, a visitor brought him this evening,” he said, “to make up for called him Vanya, though I believe news of Gimer’s death. “The corpse is lost time.” that wasn’t his real name. now really dead,” quipped the visitor— At dinner, many toasts were pro- The hero of The Living Corpse is a but Tolstoy had completely forgotten posed. An unknown man in a sports man called Fyodor. Fyodor is married, not only his former protégé but also jacket recited a particularly long, but he keeps running off with the gyp- the existence of the play. Even when pointless toast; later, I learned that sies. He is chastely in love with a gyp- the plot was recounted, Tolstoy had he was Tolstoy’s great- sy singer. Meanwhile, his wife, Liza, is no recollection of having written such great-grandson. chastely in love with his best friend, a thing: “And I am very, very glad that whose name is, oddly, Karenin. it escaped my mind to give place to We had to get up early the next (Karenin’s mother’s name is actually something else.” morning for the last event of the In- Anna Karenina.) Although Karenin The central question of Vanya’s ternational Tolstoy Conference: a field returns Liza’s love, the two are unable talk was, “Who is the living corpse?” trip to ’s former es- to act on their feelings unless Fyodor The argument twisted and glinted, tate, Melikhovo, which lay directly grants Liza a . Fyodor, for his like a mobile in the wind. At one along the three-hour route from Yas- part, cannot file for divorce without moment it seemed that Tolstoy’s Fy- naya Polyana to Moscow. In this re- besmirching the honor of the gypsy odor was actually Fyodor Dostoevsky, spect, visiting Chekhov’s estate made singer. Fyodor resolves to kill himself who had lived through the firing a certain amount of logistical sense. and even writes a note, but the gypsy squad and survived the House of the Nonetheless, after four days of total girl intercedes at the last minute, and Dead. Then it turned out that Fyodor devotion to Tolstoy, master of the they adopt a different course: Fyodor was really Fyodorov, the Russian Russian novel, it felt strange to drop in leaves his clothes on a riverbank, with mystic philosopher who believed the so breezily on Chekhov—master of the suicide note in one pocket. Every- common task of mankind was to har- the Russian short story and an alto- one believes he has drowned, ness the forces of nature and science gether different writer—simply because including Liza and Karenin. They get in order to achieve the universal res- one happened to be passing through married. But just at the point when a urrection of all the dead. Still later, it the neighborhood. new life should begin for Fyodor as seemed the living corpse was actually And so, after the banquet, when the well—nothing happens. Somehow Fy- Anna Karenina, who had died an participants went to their rooms to odor doesn’t change his name. He and adulteress in Anna Karenina and re- pack their suitcases—mine, of course, the gypsy girl don’t get married. They turned a mother-in-law in The Living had never been unpacked to begin quarrel and drift apart. Fyodor spends Corpse. Then there was Jesus Christ, with—I went onto the balcony to think all his time in the tavern. “I am a whose tomb was found empty after about Chekhov. The air smelled like

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plants and cigar smoke, bringing to to the end of his days. “He is almost a mind the marvelous story that begins perfect man,” Chekhov observed once. C ELEBRATING AN with a young man’s arrival, late one And, another time: “I am afraid of Tol- spring night, at the country estate of his stoy’s death. It would leave a great void former tutor, a famous horticulturalist. in my life.” In fact, Tolstoy outlived A M E R I C A N There is the nip of frost in the air, and Chekhov by six years. the horticulturalist and his daughter Ever since he was a medical student, are in a panic that the orchards might Chekhov had experienced episodes of freeze. The daughter has resolved to coughing blood. He dismissed them as L E G E N D stay up all night, supervising the bon- bronchitis or the flu, but everyone knew fires. All night long, the young man the real cause. One night in 1897, while and the daughter pace, coughing and dining with his editor in Moscow’s best weeping, through the rows of trees, restaurant, Chekhov suffered a severe watching the workers who stoke the lung hemorrhage. Blood poured from smoldering bonfires with manure and his mouth onto the white tablecloth. damp straw. I tried to remember how He was rushed to a private clinic and di- the story ends. It does not end well. agnosed with advanced tuberculosis in Chekhov was nine years old when both lungs. He survived the attack but War and Peace was published. He ad- was, for some days, extremely weak and mired Tolstoy tremendously and unable to speak. Only family members longed to meet him; at the same time, were admitted to see him. Then Tol- the prospect of this meeting filled him stoy turned up, wearing an enormous with such alarm that he once ran out bearskin coat. Nobody had the nerve to of a bathhouse in Moscow when he tell him to leave, so he sat at Chekhov’s learned that Tolstoy was also there. bedside and talked for a long time about Chekhov did not want to meet Tolstoy the “immortality of the soul.” Chekhov in the bath, but this apparently was listened silently. Although he did not “Eleven essays . . . his inescapable destiny. When at last believe in the immortality of the soul, vigorously argued, he worked up the nerve to go to Yas- he was nonetheless touched by Lev well-written opinions naya Polyana, Chekhov arrived at the Nikolayevich’s solicitude. about Lincoln—the person and exact moment when Tolstoy was head- The last meetings between Tolstoy the politician.” —Booklist ed to the stream for his daily ablutions. and Chekhov took place in Gaspra, Tolstoy insisted that Chekhov join the spa town on the Black Sea that him; Chekhov later recalled that, as he Tolstoy frequented. One day in Gaspra, and Tolstoy sat naked in the chin- Tolstoy put his arm around Chekhov. deep water, Tolstoy’s beard floated ma- “My dear friend, I beg of you,” he said, jestically before him. “do stop writing plays!” Another time, Despite his lifelong hostility toward when the two writers were gazing at the the medical profession, Tolstoy took sea, Tolstoy demanded, “Were you an instant liking to Chekhov. “He is very profligate in your ?” full of talent, he undoubtedly has a Chekhov was speechless with embar- very good heart,” he said, “but thus far rassment. Tolstoy, glaring out at the he does not seem to have any very def- horizon, announced, “I was insatiable!” inite attitude toward life.” Chekhov How could Chekhov not have sought had only a poorly defined attitude to- treatment? How could he not have ward life, this strange process that recognized his symptoms—especially brought one eye-to-eye with the float- when he spent weeks nursing his own ing beard of the greatest crank in world brother Nikolai, who died of tubercu- literature. Today the stream where they losis in 1889? bathed is partly obstructed and full of I was reminded of a production of “An unexpected, odd-angle vegetable life. One of the Internation- , the first play I ever saw approach . . . that proves al Tolstoy Scholars who insisted on sit- in Russian, put on some years ago in marvelously insightful.” ting in it emerged completely green. Moscow. The actor playing Dr. As- Chekhov, grandson of a serf, never trov had been a television star, famous —Kirkus (starred review) saw the point of Tolstoyanism. Why for playing Dr. Watson in the Sherlock should educated people lower them- Holmes series on Soviet TV. Watch- selves to the level of ? The ing Dr. Astrov smoke a pipe, pore over peasants should be raised to the level maps, and rail against deforestation— of educated people! Nonetheless, watching Dr. Astrov fail to notice the Distributor of Berg Publishers, I.B.Tauris, Chekhov remained in awe of Tolstoy really important thing, that Sonya Manchester University Press, Pluto Press, and Zed Books AVAILABLE AT BOOKSTORES www.palgrave-usa.com

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was in love with him—I was struck “Into the woods, girls,” the textolo- Leena in the eye. “We planned to go, by his similarity to Dr. Watson. Doc- gist announced. We dispersed into the so we are going to go.” tor, I thought, you see but you do not scraggly woods behind the gas station. Back on the bus, the driver was com- observe! For all your scientific en- The woods were full of garbage. Why am plaining about how he was going to lightenment, you always I here? I thought, looking at a vodka be late. Instead of dropping us off in misread the signs. bottle that lay on the ground. It’s because Moscow, he was going to leave us at of Chekhov. the outermost metro stop of the out- At six o’clock the next morn- Back on the bus, the driver was ermost suburbs. ing, the twenty-five International cleaning his nails with a pocketknife. “He is a bandit!” someone shouted Tolstoy Scholars boarded a chartered Leena came back after a minute or two. of the bus driver. There were murmurs bus to Moscow. Nobody seemed to She said that she had been bitten by of agreement. One by one, the re- know how far Melikhovo was from one of God’s creatures. maining passengers returned to the Yasnaya Polyana, how long it would “He made a lot of them,” I observed bus. Last was Vanya, whose pale eyes take to get there, or whether there of God and his creatures. wandered over the two aisles of Inter- would be any stops along the way. I don’t know how long we had national Tolstoy Scholars. “Ladies and Leena, a keen-eyed young woman been waiting in our seats when it be- gentlemen,” he announced, clinging writing a dissertation about Tolstoy gan to seem odd that the bus hadn’t to the handrail, as if climbing out of a and Schopenhauer, was particularly moved. I became aware of some ex- swimming pool. “Ladies and gentle- concerned about the subject of bath- ternal commotion. Just outside my men, I must apologize for the delay. I room breaks. “The bus will bump,” window, the conference organizer— am an old man, you see. she observed. “There is no toilet on a brisk Canadian, who had written a A very old man.” this bumping bus.” well-received book about Tolstoy’s Leena and I made a pact: if either of representation of peasant life—was When the bus started again, a us had to go to the bathroom, we would opening the luggage compartment. wave of sleepiness passed over me. I march to the front of the bus togeth- Her round, bespectacled face was set had stayed up late the previous er and request a stop. in a resolute expression as she night, reading a biography of The bus raced along the highway dragged out a suitcase and began car- Chekhov. I had wanted to prepare to Moscow. Through the birch forests rying it away. my soul for the visit to Melikhovo, that flickered past my window, I Looking around, I suddenly no- but Yasnaya Polyana was like a glimpsed the same north-south rail- ticed the absence of several Interna- haunted house: no matter how hard way line that had carried Tolstoy from tional Tolstoy Scholars: a military you tried to think about Chekhov, Shamardino toward Astapovo. historian and his wife, the tennis you kept tripping over Tolstoy. About an hour north of Tula, Leena scholar from Yale, and the expert on There was no way around it; it all slipped into the seat beside me. The Living Corpse. Leena and I got seemed to have been fated before “It is time,” she said. “Remember off the bus to investigate. they were born. In 1841, Chekhov’s your promise.” “I told him just to throw them serf grandfather purchased his fami- “I remember,” I said, preparing to out,” the conference organizer was ly’s freedom from their master, a no- get up, but Leena didn’t move. “I just saying. “He insists on taking them bleman called Chertkov—who was got my period,” she said, staring with him. I’m at least going to find none other than the future father of straight ahead. “It’s ten days early. It’s double bags.” She strode off in the , the Dark One, not the right time.” I made some ex- direction of the gas station, carrying the beneficiary of Tolstoy’s secret pression of sympathy. “It is the wrong a big plastic bag that appeared to will! (Chekhov’s grandfather paid time,” she said firmly, and stood up. contain some heavy object. Chertkov’s father 220 rubles per We walked to the front of the bus. “It’s going to be so awful when he soul; Chertkov père, apparently not a The driver didn’t acknowledge our re- opens the suitcase,” said the military bad guy, threw in one of Chekhov’s quest in any way, but something about historian’s wife. aunts for free.) No wonder Chekhov his shiny, shaven head indicated that It emerged that Vanya had had an didn’t believe in immortality. In the he had heard us. A few minutes later accident and was refusing to throw out moment the money changed hands, the bus lurched off the road and skid- his pants. He wanted them to be put his own grandfather had become a ded to a stop at a gas station. into his suitcase, in a plastic bag. The Gogolian “dead soul”: a serf who The women’s bathroom was locat- military historian and the tennis schol- had been paid for, though he no ed fifty yards behind the gas pumps, in ar were in the men’s toilet, trying to longer existed. a little hut on the edge of the woods. reason with him. Leena had turned I also learned that night that Tol- The door appeared to have been completely pale. “It’s the tyranny of stoy had seen Uncle Vanya during boarded over, but the boards were de- the body,” she said. its first run in Moscow, when the cayed and hanging from their nails. The conference organizer came back role of Astrov was played by The enormous textologist went in first. with her double bags. Stanislavsky himself. The only posi- She reemerged almost immediately, “We must not go to Melikhovo,” tive impression retained by Tolstoy preceded by a kind of muffled splin- Leena told her. “It is not the right time.” from this production was of the tering sound. The conference organizer looked sound of a cricket chirping in the

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final act. A well-known actor had naya Polyana was Tolstoy’s ancestral was think of a motive. But somehow spent an entire month acquiring estate and the center of his universe; this time the motive wasn’t forth- precisely this skill, from a cricket in it makes sense to visit Yasnaya Polyana. coming. My heart wasn’t in it any- the Sandunov public baths. Never- Chekhov had no ancestral estate. He more. I found myself remembering theless, his masterful chirping was bought Melikhovo, a house infested “The Adventure of the Final Prob- not enough to counterbalance the at that time by bedbugs and roaches, lem,” the first and last story in which overall terrible impression left on from a destitute artist. Seven years lat- Watson has no trouble and no fun Tolstoy by Uncle Vanya. “Where is er, when tuberculosis obliged him to applying Holmes’s method: “It was, the drama?” Tolstoy once shouted seek a milder climate, he sold the land alas, only too easy to do.” Two sets when the play was mentioned. He to a timber merchant and moved to of prints lead to the waterfall, and even harangued the actors, telling Yalta. Melikhovo was just a stage for none lead back; nearby lies the them that Astrov and Vanya had Chekhov—almost a stage set. The alpenstock of the best and wisest best marry peasant girls and leave neighboring estates were owned by so- man he has ever known. the professor’s wife in peace. cial outcasts: the body-building grand- Later, of course, Conan Doyle re- Tolstoy’s diary entry for January 27, son of a Decembrist rebel; a fallen cants. Holmes’s death and Watson’s 1900, reads, “I went to see Uncle Vanya countess and her much younger lover. bereavement turn out to be a tempo- and became incensed. Decided to write No single room in Chekhov’s rary illusion, and real life starts again: a drama, Corpse.” Tolstoy started house was large enough to contain the late nights, the hansom rides, the work on The Living Corpse the entire body of International peat bogs, the thrill of the chase. that month. Tolstoy Scholars. We shuffled But can things ever really be the along a dark corridor. The guide same between the doctor and the I dreamed I was playing tennis gestured toward various rooms, too “living corpse”? Will there not come against Tolstoy. As Alice in Won- small to enter. a time when Holmes has to tell his derland plays croquet with a flamin- We passed on to a tiny “parloir”: friend that all the murderers they go for a mallet, I was playing tennis “the scene of in-ter-minable, inter- apprehended were but the pawns of with a goose for a racket. Lev Niko- esting conversations.” a far greater force, untouchable by layevich had a normal racket. I “Did Chekhov play the piano?” human justice—a force even capa- served the ball, producing a flurry of someone asked. ble of acting independently, with no fluffy gray down. Tolstoy’s mighty “No!” the guide exclaimed, with human agent? backhand projected the ball far be- great emphasis. “He absolutely did Watson will be utterly confused. yond the outermost limits of the not play!” “A criminal act, without a criminal tennis lawn, into the infinite dimen- I noticed a pocket of space around actor—my dear Holmes, surely sion of total knowledge and human Vanya, who looked a bit forlorn. I you cannot have gone over to the understanding. . approached him but inadvertently supernaturalists!” I handed my goose over to Chekhov, stepped back, because of the smell. Holmes will smile sadly. “Nay, my who was next in the line of Tolstoy’s Somewhere in the shadows that old friend—I fear that, of all forces, opponents. Sitting on the edge of the lay ahead, the guide was shouting, it is the most natural.” lawn, watching the Tolstoy-Chekhov “Here is the beloved inkwell of the Call it Professor Moriarty or game, I suddenly realized, with a shiv- great writer!” Madame la Mort, call it the black er, the identity of the living corpse. I extricated myself from the dark monk, or use its Latin name: this It was Chekhov. Tolstoy had written forest of shoulders, hurried down the killer has infinite means and unfath- that play about Chekhov, whom narrow hallway, and exited into omable motives. he had always intended Chekhov’s garden. The garden was And still life goes on in Chek- to outlive. empty but for the conference orga- hov’s garden, where it’s always a nizer, who was making a video fine day for hanging yourself, and I woke to the crunching of gravel. recording of Chekhov’s apple trees, somebody somewhere is playing the We had reached Melikhovo, where and the Malevich scholar, who guitar. In a hotel in Kharkov, the we were offered the choice of a full stooped to pick up an apple, stared at old professor is deducing the identi- or an abridged tour. “We want the it, and took an enormous, ty of his future murderer: “I will be full tour,” the conference organizer yawning bite. killed by . . . that abominable wall- said grimly, pulling out her video paper!” Interior decoration is so of- camera. Our tour guide, a pensioner I walked quickly, trying to recap- ten the Final Problem; Ivan Ilyich with chemically tangerine-colored ture the spark of mystery. Perhaps, I was done in by some drapes. Now hair, took twenty minutes to guide thought, Tolstoy had been killed by the samovar has almost gone cold, us from the ticket booth to the front the “corpse”—by Gimer, who was and frost has touched the cherry door. “Respected guests!” she shout- supposedly dead two years at this blossoms. Dr. Chekhov, loyal custo- ed. “We are now located in the back time, but had anyone actually seen dian of the human body, you who yard of the neighbor of Anton the body? “Now who’s the corpse!” I could look in the ear of an idle man Pavlovich Chekhov!” imagined Gimer muttering, setting and see an entire universe—where Inside the house, I felt nothing. Yas- down the teaspoon—all I had to do are you now? ■

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