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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.
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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 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. 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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C9 HIG::I N the conference organizer. “It’s inscribed amine the ground. I was looking for I>H8= 8:CI:G ;DG I=: 6GIH to his daughter Sasha, and Sasha wasn’t Hyoscyamus niger, a toxic plant known JCI:G7:G<