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THE MURDER of LEO TOLSTOY a Forensic Investigation by Elif Batuman

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THE MURDER of LEO TOLSTOY a Forensic Investigation by Elif Batuman [45-53]Batuman Final2 12/18/08 6:07 PM Page 45 MISCELLANY THE MURDER OF LEO TOLSTOY 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 Yasnaya Polyana, 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 War and Peace “Did Tolstoy Die of and Anna Karenina, 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 life,” 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 novel 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. Illustration by Steven Dana MISCELLANY 45 [45-53]Batuman Final2 12/18/08 3:49 PM Page 46 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 The Kreutzer Sonata—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’ Moscow, 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 children. 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.
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