Sophia Andreevna Tolstaya: A Case Study of Co-Creativity Kourtney Gillett
Gillett 2
Sophia Tolstaya: A Blackened Memory
Over a century ago, the wife of Lev Tolstoy, Sophia Andreevna Tolstaya, was branded as a shrew who “purposely calculated to wound, insult and revolt [Tolstoy] … in his most sacred feelings.”1 Vladimir Chertkov, close friend and leading disciple of Tolstoy, was at the head of this public scorning. Tolstoy’s diaries, which were read and copied by
Chertkov2 on a regular basis, were used against Sophia in his publication The Last Days of Tolstoy (1911). Passages about his wife that were included from Tolstoy’s diaries were limited to those which included negative commentary. Chertkov even presents his own commentary, stating in the opening of the book: “Now that Tolstoy’s wife is dead, the chief obstacle to revealing the true causes of [Tolstoy’s] going away from Yasnaya
Polyana is removed.”3 The publication was adamant in portraying Tolstoy as a martyr, and his wife as his oppressor.
Despite the efforts of some to clear Tolstaya’s name, their support remained fruitless to the power of Chertkov’s campaign. 4 Later, Chertkov would head the project of publishing a ninety-volume edition of all of Tolstoy’s work, including biographical articles, many of which were written by Chertkov himself. The edition became a rich
1 Alexandra Popoff, Sophia Tolstoy: A Biography (New York: Free Press, 2010), 308.
2 Tolstoy was deeply upset upon discovering that Chertkov had been reading his diaries as a means of further proving that his wife was a “crazed woman.” In his son Sergei’s reflections, he mentions that Tolstoy kept a small personal diary, which no one else had access to. According to Sergei, this reflected his father’s “duality in [the] matter [of Chertkov’s insistence of his wife’s insanity.]” Sergei Tolstoy, Tolstoy Remembered by His Son, trans. Moura Budberg (Great Britain: The Whitefriars Press Ltd, 1961), 131.
3 Popoff, Sophia Tolstoy, 302.
4 Not even the support of renowned writer Maxim Gorky could change her repute to the public. After realizing critics were not going to speak out against Tolstaya’s portrayal in The Last Days of Tolstoy, Gorky stated: “I told myself that someone would surely be found to write to the papers that the direct and sole purpose of this concoction is to blacken the memory of the late Sophia Andreevna Tolstaya. But so far I have not come across a single review drawing attention to this honorable purpose. I now learn that yet another book is to come out, written with the same laudable intention of convincing the educated section of society that Lev Tolstoy’s wife was his evil spirit.” Popoff, Sophia Tolstoy, 309. Gillett 3 resource of information about Tolstoy’s life, heavily relied upon by scholars and intellectuals. According to Rodionov, close friend and fellow disciple who took over the publication following Chertkov’s death, “this most comprehensive edition of Tolstoy’s work was infected with bias.”5
Also infected with bias were recollections of Tolstaya from her own children. In
Tolstoy’s later years, during the rift between him and his wife over the matter of his will and copyrights, his children took their own stances on the matter. Some, including one of his youngest children, Alexandra, vehemently supported his flight from Yasanaya
Polyana. She engaged in what her sister Tat’iana claimed to be “a shameful and unworthy struggle with her own mother.”6 Alexandra believed that her mother’s behavior was slowly killing Tolstoy. Another child, Sergei, wrote to his father after the flight from
Yasnaya Polyana, stating:
“I believe that Mother is nervously affected and in many ways irresponsible, and
that you should have separated from her (perhaps long ago), no matter how hard
this was on you both. I even think that if anything should happen to Mama, which
I do not expect, you would not have any grounds for self-reproach. There was no
solution to the situation and I think you chose the only real way out of it. Forgive
me for writing so frankly.”7
Not surprisingly, in the eyes of Tolstaya, nearly everyone was against her. None of her children were able to fully understand her, and the few that sympathized with her only did so out of pity – to them, she was pathetic, hysterical, and melodramatic. Her tears and emotional breakdowns were either ascribed to her impressive acting skills directed at
5 Popoff, Sophia Tolstoy, 310.
6 Popoff, Sophia Tolstoy, 294.
7 Alexandra Tolstoy, Tolstoy: A Life of my Father (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1953), 515. Gillett 4 gaining the attention of her husband, or to a medical condition. Her behavior was seen as selfish; many thought Tolstoy’s depression and agitated mental state was directly linked to her, and after being reproached for her behavior by her children, even she herself was convinced of this. The notion that her own children could blame her for their father’s urge to leave took a devastating emotional toll on her, and the guilt she felt would last the rest of her life. This – the image of a melodramatic, nerve-stricken, oppressive wife – would follow Tolstaya decades after her death.
Blaming Tolstaya helped to explain many of Tolstoy’s contradictions. Having denounced private property, his estate and land still remained under the names of his wife and children. To his disciples, this meant one thing – Tolstaya held absolute control over him. With the promotion of Chertkov’s writings, Tolstaya was branded as the biggest obstacle in her husband’s life. It was widely accepted that leaving his wife was his only option to live freely, where he could openly practice and live by his beliefs without interference.8
Upon fleeing from his estate, Tolstoy died of pneumonia several days later. And after his death, upon the discovery of his secret will9, Tolstaya’s life and dedication to her husband were discounted completely. The will gave proof to Tolstoy’s misery and only solidified the accusations made against Tolstaya. Her reputation would remain tarnished for the rest of her life.
8 After the Bolshevik revolution, there was a need to portray Tolstoy in a radical light. He was seen as the precursor to the Russian revolution of 1917, as his ideas of abolishing all private property and wealth appeared akin to the Bolshevik ideals. Chertkov knew and understood this, and thus contributed to creating the image of a rebellious Tolstoy. Regardless of his personal feelings for Tolstaya, it then became necessary for Chertkov to portray her as villainous wife who stood in the way of Tolstoy’s revolutionary beliefs.
9 This will was written in Tolstoy’s personal diary, stating that Chertkov was to be given the rights to his literary work. This was done with the intention that Tolstoy’s works would be distributed freely amongst the public, denying his family from profit. Popoff, Sophia Tolstoy, 276. Gillett 5
Sophia Tolstaya has only recently begun to be acknowledged as someone who was more than a hindrance to her husband. In opposition to the campaign that sought to tarnish her image and ultimately blame her for her husband’s death, she is now being celebrated for her merits and importance to Tolstoy’s life. Recent publications about
Tolstaya and her life, specifically Alexandra Popoff’s Sophia Tolstoy: A Biography, and
Tolstaya’s personal memoirs from her book My Life, attest to this. In her new biography,
Popoff sets out to create an embellished image of her subject. Tolstaya admittedly did act dramatically, but in her own words explains that that was the only way for Tolstoy to understand her feelings; he was otherwise oblivious. After an episode between the two, their eldest child Sergei recalls his conversation with Tolstaya about her behavior:
“Mother came out into the hall to meet us, her hair disheveled, and wearing a
dressing gown. I was appalled by the change in her face; suddenly it was old,
shriveled, and trembling, and her eyes could not keep still. This was a new face to
me. She talked incessantly, wept, and repeated that she would certainly put an end
to her life and if they insisted on fishing her out of the pond, well, she would
starve herself to death. I told her, rather harshly, that such behavior would have an
adverse effect on Father, she had to calm her nerves and calm down, and then
Father would return. She said: ‘No, no, you don’t know him, the only way to
influence him is to provoke his pity.’ I knew myself that she was right and though
I protested it was only faintly.”10
Tolstaya’s diaries present her own interpretations of her daily interactions with her husband. The two, primarily at the beginning of their marriage, relied on reading and responding to each other’s diaries as a means of communication and intimacy. Indeed, when both diaries are read simultaneously, their combined entries form a distinct
10 Tolstoy, Tolstoy Remembered by His Son, 135. Gillett 6 dialogue. Thus, looking to the diaries of Tolstaya and her husband can be seen as a basis for understanding their relationship. Furthermore, it becomes clear that Tolstaya is not merely the caretaker, devoted wife and mother she was made out to be, but was equally instrumental in shaping her husband’s literary works.
It is well known that Tolstaya acted as Tolstoy’s personal transcriber and publisher. I argue that, in her duty as such, she helped to shape and write the works of her husband in ways not ordinarily seen; namely, through her own creativity in editing and inspiring her husband’s works. In proving this, I will focus my argument on the early years of their marriage, when Tolstoy was at the peak of his creativity – the time in which
War and Peace was written. With Tolstaya’s daily involvements in developing the novel, it was one of the times when the couple worked most closely together. Tolstaya’s sentiments about the novel and its characters were also presented in her diaries, which
Tolstoy took into great consideration; their relationship through writing was a reciprocal one. Thus, in addressing the reciprocity of this relationship, Tolstaya’s creative weight should not be ignored. I submit that she was an original and talented narrator in her own right, albeit very much influenced by her husband’s writing.
War and Peace
Tolstoy began writing what would become War and Peace in 1863, only a few months after his wedding. From its early beginnings, Tolstaya was involved in its development.
Her memoirs describe her daily transcriptions of the novel, and how working as his transcriptionist gave her “great aesthetic pleasure.” 11 This pleasure was rooted in simultaneously uncovering the development of the plot, as well as playing witness to
11 Sophia Tolstoy, My Life, trans. John Woodsworth and Arkadi Klioutchanski (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2010), 83. Gillett 7
Tolstoy’s genius at work. Since childhood, she had read his work with great admiration.
This admiration grew throughout the early years of their marriage, and Tolstaya found herself completely enamored with watching her husband work.
In many instances, she could not help but voice her opinion over matters of female character development – for, according to her, Tolstoy did not know how to treat women, and thus would not know how to treat his own female characters. Tolstaya states several times in My Life that, had she not criticized his portrayal of certain female figures and their actions, Tolstoy would have quite possibly offended an entire female audience.
Reflecting on transcribing War and Peace, Tolstaya states:
“I remember once getting very angry that Lev Nikolaevich had offered a cynical
comment on certain scenes describing the depravity of the beautiful Elena
Bezukhova. I pleaded with him to delete this passage. I said that such a
despicable, uninteresting and filthy episode would take away any pleasure young
girls might have in reading this marvelous work. At first Lev Nikolaevich snarled
at me, but later he did delete that whole filthy scene from his novel.”12
Tolstaya’s influence on her husband’s work can be traced as far back as her youth. As a girl, she was very much inspired to write, and soon discovered her talent for it. At sixteen, she wrote a novella entitled Natasha, in which she depicted the lives of three sisters (i.e. her own family.) The main character, Natasha, was modeled after her sister Tanya. A month before her marriage to Tolstoy, Tolstaya allowed him to read her work, which he found to be impressive – so impressive, in fact, that it would become inspiration for Natasha Rostova in War and Peace. After reading her novella, Tolstoy
“praised [her] for pure demands on love.”13 Keeping with the characterization of the
12 Tolstoy, My Life, 83.
13 Popoff, Sophia Tolstoy, 21. Gillett 8 original Natasha, Tolstoy’s Natasha was also modeled after Tanya. But in depicting her later years as a mother, it is evident that inspiration was drawn from Sophia instead.
According to Popoff, the most prominent examples of Tolstaya’s input can be found in the epilogue of War and Peace. Natasha is depicted as a wife who holds a deep understanding of her husband – she instinctively knows his thoughts and ways.14 The dialogue they share is only comprehensible between themselves, where logical, clear statements are trivial and unnecessary; they share an unsurpassed mutual understanding of each other. Undoubtedly, the intimacy of this relationship reflected that of the
Tolstoys’.
Tolstoy imagined his own wife to dress simply, manage their estate, nurse, and rear their children. But Tolstaya grew up in Moscow, and the notion of renouncing society life to solely focus on her husband and children made her extremely self- conscious; she was, after all, still a young girl. She longed for a normal life, involving gaiety, smart clothes, and chatter.15 During Tanya’s visit to the Yasnaya estate, Tolstaya would often compare herself to her “smart, fresh, and charming” sister, feeling especially
“unattractive, tired-looking, and too inelegant.”16 But this was exactly what Tolstoy wanted – a wife whose main role lay within the domestic sphere of life.
Tolstoy greatly admired and looked to this Rousseauian ideal of a mother and wife. His great admiration for it was shown through the character of Pierre in War and
Peace when he witnesses the birth of his first child:
14 Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, The Maude Translation (United States: W.W. Norton & Company, 1996), 1024-1025.
15 Sophia Tolstoy, The Diaries of Sophia Tolstoy, trans. Cathy Porter (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2009), 42.
16 Popoff, Sophia Tolstoy, 48. Gillett 9
“… ever memorable to [Pierre] after the birth of their first child… when they had
to change the wet nurse three times and Natasha fell ill from despair, Pierre one
day told her of Rousseau’s view, with which he quite agreed, that to have a wet
nurse is unnatural and harmful. When her next baby was born, despite the
opposition of her mother, the doctors, and even her husband… she insisted on
having it her way, and after that nursed all the babies herself.”17
The scene depicted is not only a reflection of Tolstoy’s personal beliefs, but a converse recollection of Tolstaya’s experience in giving birth to their first child, Sergei, where unlike Tolstoy, Pierre lets Natasha do as she wishes. According to Tolstaya, the birth, which was supposed to bring happiness, brought nothing but physical and moral suffering. After a long and strenuous delivery, Tolstaya began what would be a lengthy battle with mastitis, preventing her from breast-feeding her son. This was met with great anger and disappointment on Tolstoy’s part. After days of suffering, it was finally decided that a wet-nurse was needed while Tolstaya sought treatment. She recalls in her memoirs that “both [their] honeymoon and the birth of [their] first child turned out to be a complete disappointment for [Tolstoy.]”18 In a fit of anger, he left his wife and newborn for several days, as Tolstaya lay in bed, delirious and with a fever.
Tolstoy embodied his ideal of a Rousseauian wife in the fictional Natasha. But the true inspiration for such intimate scenes were not solely derived from Rousseauian ideals; rather, they were taken directly from his wife’s experiences. Tolstaya herself knew the difficulties of having to convert one’s life from that of a young, vivacious city girl to a doting wife and mother. She had to make a conscious effort to transform herself into an ideal wife for her husband. Early in her diaries, she took a vow to “try to be an even
17 Tolstoy, War and Peace, 1023.
18 Tolstoy, My Life, 96. Gillett 10 better nursemaid of [Tolstoy’s] talent from [then] on.”19 Without her input, Tolstoy’s success in depicting Natasha’s transition from girlhood to motherhood would have been impossible.20
Although she admittedly failed to live up to her husband’s “ideal of a healthy country gal, nurse and breast-feeder,”21 Tolstaya remained an indubitable source of inspiration. Despite his anger towards her, Tolstoy felt an underlying tenderness and sympathy for his wife. After abandoning her out of anger because of her helplessness,
Tolstoy wrote in his diary a “touching description of the birth of [their] first son, and expressed compassion toward [Tolstaya.]”22 This can perhaps be seen as the preliminary writings for what would describe the birth of Natasha’s son, and later the Levins’ son
Dmitrii.
After long days of tending to their estate, caring for children and tiresome pregnancies, Tolstaya’s dedication to her husband’s work never waivered. During some of Tolstoy’s lowest points, it was his wife who gave him the motivation and encouragement to carry on with his work – she inspired the best in him. The letters he received from her provided him with both moral support and further inspiration for his works.
19 Tolstoy, The Diaries of Sophia Tolstoy, 32.
20 Tolstoy managed to merge his two Natashas (i.e. Tanya and Sonya) into one in War and Peace, something that he would fail to do with Anna Karenina, who refused to be Vronsky’s doting wife. Tolstaya readily assisted Tolstoy by willingly transforming herself into his ideal wife and companion. Their collaboration stopped once Tolstoy started to criticize the institution of marriage as he did in The Kreutzer Sonata.
21 Tolstoy, My Life, 97.
22 Tolstaya notes that this description was later crossed out by Tolstoy during another fit of anger. Tolstoy, My Life, 97. Gillett 11
While Tolstoy was away, it was these letters that would inspire his depictions of family life in War and Peace. In one particular letter to him, Tolstaya goes on in length about their son Sergei’s struggle with the croup:
“If you could only see how pathetic he was. He was crying, suffocating; when the
mustard burned him, he jerked his little feet, grabbed my hair, pulled at my
earrings and my collar, as if he was trying to crawl inside me and was begging to
be saved… How many thoughts I thought last night; how much I loved you.”23
Tolstoy would later refer to that letter when describing Natasha in Pierre’s absence. Upon anxiously awaiting his arrival, Natasha is described as “in a constant state of alarm, depression, and irritability.”24 Her focus concerned only matters of her baby and the nursery:
“During that fortnight of anxiety Natasha resorted to the baby for comfort so
often, and fussed over him so much… She was terrified by his illness, and yet that
was just what she needed. While attending to him she bore the anxiety about her
husband more easily.”25
These scenes depicted in the epilogue of War and Peace were admittedly not invented by
Tolstoy – in a letter to his friend Afanasii Fet, he describes them as being “painfully torn from [his] inside.”26
But despite the positive inspiration and characteristics that Tolstoy drew from his own wife when creating the character of Natasha Rostova, there remains one puzzle that
23 Popoff, Sophia Tolstoy, 48.
24 Tolstoy, War and Peace, 1023.
25 Tolstoy, War and Peace, 1024.
26 Leo Tolstoy, Tolstoy’s Letters: Volume I, trans. R.F. Christian (London: The Athlone Press, 1978), 221. Gillett 12 has yet to be explained: Why would Tolstoy give the fictional Sonya, the “sterile flower” and spinster of War and Peace, the same name as his wife? Tolstoy purposefully casts her a bleak fate, denying her all prospects of love. On top of that, Sonya is even denied the sympathy of Natasha:
“It was necessary to sacrifice herself for the happiness of the family which had
brought her up and educated her. To sacrifice herself for the happiness of others
was Sonya’s habit. Her position in the house was such that only on the road of
sacrifice could she prove her worth, and she was used to and fond of self-
sacrifice. But, heretofore, in all her acts of self-sacrifice, she had been joyfully
conscious of enhancing, by such acts, her own worth in her own eyes and in those
of others, and of becoming worthier of Nikolay, whom she loved more than
anyone in the world; but now her sacrifice was to consist in renouncing what for
her constituted the whole reward of sacrifice, - the whole meaning of life.”27
“Do you know,” said Natasha, “you’ve read the Gospel a great deal; there is a
passage in it which refers directly to Sonya.”
… ‘For whosoever hath, to him shall be given; but whosoever hath not, from him
shall be taken away even that he hath,’ – do you remember it? She has not; why, I
do not know; maybe she has no egoism, - for aught I know; but from her it will be
taken, and already has been taken. I sometimes am very sorry for her; I used to
wish that [Nikolay] would marry her; but I always foresaw that it would never be.
She is a sterile flower, you know, as in the strawberries. At times I am sorry for
her, and at times I think that she does not feel as we should feel it.”28
27 Leo Tolstoy, The Complete Works of Count Tolstoy: War and Peace: Volume IV Epilogue, trans. Leo Wiener (London: J.M. Dent & Co., 1904), 41.
28 Tolstoy, Complete Works, 378. Gillett 13
Tolstoy’s take on this particular character, whom his female readers no doubt came to like and admire, runs counter to Tolstaya’s analysis of her husband’s ability to psychologize his own characters:
“Lev Nikolaevich beheld in every person an integral type, which satisfied him
artistically. But if some character trait should inadvertently creep in and violate
the integrity of the type, Lev Nikolaevich didn’t notice it and didn’t want to
notice…”29
Yes, Tolstoy’s Sonya does not change, but the world around her does change dramatically. Finding a plausible explanation that would account for Tolstoy giving his wife’s name to the character that fails so dismally for no apparent reason is beyond the scope of this paper. At this point it will suffice to note that the life of older Sophia bears striking similarities to the fate of the fictional Sonya. Despite their numerous sacrifices, boundless loyalty, and devotion, both women were greatly underappreciated by people closest to them – at a time when appreciation was what they needed most of all.
Orgy of Heart and Soul
Unlike his wife, who was deeply moved by the novel, Tolstoy harshly criticized his work.
But in his letter to Fet, he also states that he is not afraid of what he has written in the epilogue. The fact that his inspiration was drawn from his wife and family life left him with a certainty in his work that the earlier portions of the novel could not provide. Even years later, after experiencing feelings of shame and repentance upon glancing through
War and Peace, he claims to be consoled by one thing – “that [he] was carried away by this orgy of heart and soul, and that nothing else mattered besides it.”30
29 Tolstoy, My Life, 93.
30 Tolstoy, Tolstoy’s Letters, 257. Gillett 14
Both Tolstoy and his wife experienced this “orgy of heart and soul.” They felt that
War and Peace was their child; upon sending the manuscript out for publishing, Tolstaya described to her husband: “Letting go of what I had transcribed and sending it off to
Moscow was like letting go of a child and being afraid lest some harm might befall it.”31
The novel brought an unparalleled level of intimacy and strength to their relationship, where, for the first time, Tolstaya felt her purpose beyond the realm of domesticity.
Tolstoy trusted her opinions and valued her suggestions about his work; he understood the mutuality of their intelligence and abilities.
Tolstaya boldly left comments on his manuscripts, both acclaiming and critiquing it, which Tolstoy turned to in revising his work. Recollections from her memoirs suggest she saw War and Peace as a product of their joint efforts. In one letter to her husband while transcribing the novel, Tolstaya states:
“No sooner do I sit down to transcribe than I am carried off into a poetic world,
and it seems to me sometimes that it is not that your novel is so good, but that I
am so clever.”32
Years later, Tolstaya would sorely miss those days of profound togetherness and deep penetration into her husband’s thoughts and creative process. Scholars have revealed that Tolstaya did not only copy her husband’s writing, but also changed some of his wording; these changes were made to such an extent that some of Tolstoy’s original sentiments were altered completely. 33 Why would Tolstaya allow herself so much
31 Tolstoy, My Life, 138.
32 Tolstoy, My Life, 139.
33 According to the texologist Natalia Velikanova, Tolstaya sometimes deleted sentences and even scenes from the novel, which were not to her liking. Velikanova notes that as Tolstaya was transcribing, she found three descriptions of Pierre’s feelings towards Helene to be distasteful and purposely omitted them from her transcription. These scenes would never appear in the final text. Intellect Video. “Rozhdenie khudozhestvennogo teksta.” Last modified June 16, 2010. Accessed Gillett 15 liberty? The answer, I believe, lies in the fact that she saw herself not only as a scribe or a source of inspiration, but as a co-creator of her husband’s works.
Creative Liberty
“What a smart girl you are in anything you put your mind to! That’s why I say
that you are indifferent to intellectual interests, and that is more than not being a
limitation, it is [a sign of] intelligence, and a great intelligence at that…”
Tolstoy reassured his wife when she felt dwarfed compared to his creative genius. 34 But
Tolstaya did not believe herself to be “one of those ladies who [doesn’t] find any abilities within themselves and just [wastes] away.”35 She longed for a spiritual life, or a life of art; afternoons spent by herself as her children slept and her husband worked left her feeling restless. This period proved to be extremely difficult for her, as she experienced a sense of low self-esteem living side by side with the renowned writer. As she became involved in her husband’s work on War and Peace, her transcription work and her original contributions to its creation would gradually assuage her anxieties. More so,
Tolstaya allowed herself the freedom of enacting her own creativity in War and Peace.
Passages from Tolstaya’s diaries and letters attest to her ability to write and to write well and creatively. On several occasions throughout the early years of her marriage, she faced difficulties in accepting her husband’s past. On the eve of their marriage, Tolstoy gave his bride-to-be his diaries of his youth, which included recollections of his sexual past. This discovery proved to be even more traumatizing as
November 11, 2011. http://intellect-video.com/1562/Gordon-Rozhdenie-khudozhestvennogo- teksta-online/.
34 Tolstoy, My Life, 116.
35 Tolstoy, My Life, 121. Gillett 16
Tolstaya learned of his affair with a peasant woman named Aksinya, with whom he had a son. Tolstaya was crushed, as she had expected her future husband to be as pure as she.
This incident would make a lasting impression on Tolstaya, as she found it difficult to live on an estate where both Aksinya and Tolstoy’s illegitimate son continued to live. Jealousy and insecurity plagued her first months of marriage, as thoughts of
Aksinya intruded her daily life:
“One of these days I think I shall kill myself with jealousy. ‘In love as never
before!’ he writes. With that fat, pale peasant woman – how frightful! I looked at
the dagger and the guns with such joy. One blow, I thought, how easy it would be
– if only it weren’t for the baby. Yet to think she is there, just a few steps away. I
feel demented. I shall go for a drive. I may even see her. So he really did love her!
I should like to burn his diary and the whole of his past.”36
Tolstaya’s confusion and anger towards her husband escalated as their marriage progressed. She could only view herself as Aksinya’s successor, and was often struck with horror in imagining Tolstoy dedicating the same intimate attentions to Aksinya as he did to her:
“I had such a bad dream last night. Our Yasnaya peasant girls and women were
visiting us in a huge garden, all dressed up as ladies, then started going off
somewhere, one after the other. A.37 came last, wearing a black silk dress. I began
speaking to her and was seized with such violent rage that I picked up her child
and began tearing him to pieces. I tore off his head and legs – I was like a
madwoman. Then Lyovochka came up and I told him they would send me to
Siberia, but he picked up the legs and arms and all the other bits and told me it
36 Tolstoy, The Diaries of Sophia Tolstoy, 8.
37 Aksinya Gillett 17
was only a doll. I looked down and saw that it was indeed, with just cloth and
stuffing for a body. And that made me furious. I often torture myself thinking
about her.”38
What is most remarkable is not Tolstaya’s dream itself, but rather her recollection of that dream in her diary. Unable to look to Tolstoy for support,39 she could only rely on the power of her narrative strategies to make sense of her husband’s past and her own feelings. Both the dream and its recollection had a therapeutic effect – “it was only a doll.”
Interestingly, Tolstoy wrote of a similar dream he had about Tolstaya, in which she was made out of china:
“…I opened my eyes… and saw Sonya – but not the Sonya that you and I knew –
a Sonya made out of china! … I still couldn’t believe my eyes and began to call
her; she couldn’t move without the support of the base beneath her, and she could
only rock a little bit on her base so as to fall towards me. I heard the china bottom
bumping against the floor. I began to touch her – she was all smooth china,
pleasant to touch and cold…”40
R.F. Christian, in fact, believes that Tolstoy’s dream may have originated from his wife’s:
“Tolstoy’s ‘dream’ makes use of the same symbol, a doll… but uses it in a
different way… Boris Eichenbaum suggests in his biography of Tolstoy that the
38 Tolstoy, The Diaries of Sophia Tolstoy, 10-11.
39 Tolstaya admits that she conveyed her horror of the affair to Tolstoy, but states “back then he had a hard time figuring out just what the concept of ‘giving one’s self to a man’ meant for a young girl, while as a man he had played the field all his life and chased after all sorts of women.” Tolstoy, My Life, 73.
40 Tolstoy, Tolstoy’s Letters, 178-179. Gillett 18
letter was written primarily for Sophia Andreevna to read, and that it was an
attempt to smooth over difficulties which had taken place between Tolstoy and his
wife over their marital relations. In the Behrs family… it was taken only as a
sophisticated work of literature and was much admired.”
Thus this reported “dream” might be yet another example of Tolstoy being influenced by his wife’s writing.
In learning how to record her own feelings, Tolstaya was able to control her husband’s past in re-writing it for posterity. This strategy can be seen in the following episode, in which she reflects on Tolstoy’s affair with Valeriia Arsen’eva41:
“I have been rereading his letters to V.A. They seem so youthful. It wasn’t her
that he loved but love itself and family life. I recognize him well – his moral
precepts, his splendid strivings for all that is noble and good. What a wonderful
man he is! And reading through these letters I have almost stopped feeling
jealous, as if it wasn’t V. at all but me, the woman he had to love. I put myself
into their world. She was apparently a rather pretty girl, essentially empty-headed,
morally good and lovable only because she was so young, while he was just as he
is now, not really in love with V. so much as with his love of life and goodness.
Poor man, he was still too young to realize you can never plan happiness in
advance, and will inevitably be unhappy if you try. But what noble, splendid
dreams these were.”42
41 Valeriia Arsen’eva was a noble woman whom Tolstoy planned to marry. Their relationship was in part described by Tolstoy in his Family Happiness. Supposedly in 1903, Tolstoy named his relationship with Arsen’eva among his most serious affairs. Russkii Pisatel’ I.S. Turgenev. “K istorii znakomstva I.S. Turgeneva s E.V. Liprandi.” Last modified 2011. Accessed December 5, 2011. http://www.turgenev.org.ru/e-book/vestnik-10-2003/liprandi.htm.
42 Tolstoy, The Diaries of Sophia Tolstoy, 13. Gillett 19
Tolstaya writes down her thoughts not to show that Arsen’eva is no longer a threat to her marriage, but to portray her definitively as a precursor of Tolstoy’s destined wife – i.e.
Tolstaya herself. She allows herself to be amused by Tolstoy’s naiveté and plans for the future by putting herself in the position of an omniscient narrator who knows what is going to happen to her characters. While organizing her thoughts through writing,
Tolstaya was able to make sense, and even control her husband’s past this way. She acknowledges early in her diaries that she “shall never own his past, as [she] cannot own his youth;”43 thus, her solution was to re-define it. Much like a writer, Tolstaya had the ability to deconstruct, interpret, and re-create events. In her diaries, she succeeds in telling a story that is mindful of herself and her personal needs, as well as her audience.
As is known, Tolstaya’s diaries were not only meant for herself. She was always conscious of the fact that Tolstoy would read her diaries, and wrote with him in mind.
Her narrations were meant to evoke emotion; many of them moved Tolstoy to tears. In one instance, when Tolstoy discovered a wet nurse was needed to nurse their first child, he went into a fit of rage and condemned Tolstaya harshly. It was only after reading her diary entries about the matter that he began to feel sympathetic towards her condition; her entries had the ability to evoke emotion from him. He subsequently left this note in her diary:
“Sonya, forgive me; I only realize now that I’m to blame, and how much I’m to
blame… I was rude and callous – and to whom? To the one creature who has
given me the best happiness in life and who alone loves me… I’m to blame,
Sonya darling, and I’m loathsome… but there is an excellent man inside me who
is sometimes asleep.” 44
43 Tolstoy, My Life, 73.
44 Tolstoy, Tolstoy’s Letters, 180. Gillett 20
As she was able to focus her attentions on artistic pursuits later in life, photography became another means of telling stories. Her initial interest in the field began when she was only 16. But in 1887, when many of her children were grown, she was able to dedicate time in exploring this interest once again.45 As with all of Tolstaya’s pursuits, she engaged herself with boundless energy. Many photographs of Tolstoy, which documented the last years of his life, would have never been taken had it not been for his wife. On the day of their last anniversary, it was she who requested that their photo be taken. This would become the last photograph of Tolstoy. Along with My Life, she expected her work to be made public one day. Her collection of photographs and writings were meant to be viewed simultaneously, as she sought to paint a cohesive portrait of her family life.
What Kind of an Artist was Sophia Tolstaya?
Tolstaya’s initial craving for a life of art and music would not dissipate as she grew older.
Her chief reason for taking up photography, music, and later painting, was because of the great joy they brought her. She found solace in creating. Once Tolstoy stopped asking for her suggestions about help with transcribing his works, she was able to focus her attentions elsewhere:
“My everyday life was then full of photographic and musical activities.
Sometimes I would play for four hours at a time. I would often retreat to the
empty annex [at Yasnaya Polyana] where even at night I would not fear
loneliness, as I would get carried away studying a Beethoven sonata, or a Chopin
45 Popoff, Sophia Tolstoy, 166. Gillett 21
scherzo, or Mendelssohn’s Song without Words. My photographic snapshots I
gave away to many people… and they gave my family members pleasure…”46
Given Tolstaya’s many artistic talents, and special circumstances as the wife of a genius, the question remains: What kind of creative genius was she herself? We might find an answer in the writings of Arthur Schopenhauer, whose works were read avidly by the
Tolstoys. Tolstoy was a great admirer of Schopenhauer. In her memoirs, Tolstaya notes that he spent the entire summer of 1869 studying Schopenhauer’s works. Indeed, in a letter to Fet on August 30, 1869, Tolstoy writes:
“Do you know what this summer has meant for me? Constant raptures
over Schopenhauer and a whole series of spiritual delights which I’ve never
experienced before. I’ve sent for all his works and I’m reading them (I’ve also
read Kant), and probably no student ever studied so much in his course, and
learned so much, as I did this summer.
I don’t know if I’ll ever change my opinion47, but at present I’m certain
that Schopenhauer is the most brilliant of men…
As I read him, it’s inconceivable to me how his name can remain
unknown. There’s only one explanation – the one that he rejects so often, that
there is hardly anybody on earth except idiots.”48
Tolstoy applied the ideas he found meaningful to both his personal life and his work.49
According to Tolstaya, he would often share stories about philosophers and their
46 Tolstoy, My Life, 970.
47 R.F. Christian notes in his translation that, although Tolstoy’s attitude did slightly change towards Schopenhauer, he nevertheless remained a powerful influence. Tolstoy, Tolstoy’s Letters, 221.
48 Tolstoy, Tolstoy’s Letters, 221. Gillett 22 thoughts, which she eagerly listened to; she herself “had a passionate love of philosophy” and read Schopenhauer frequently.50
Arthur Schopenhauer was twenty-two when he turned to studying philosophy, and “knew at once that he had found himself.”51 His ideas of The World as Will and Idea were formulated within a span of six years. After writing his work between 1814-1818, he had great confidence in his findings, stating:
“Subject to the limitation of human knowledge, my philosophy is the real solution
of the enigma of the world. In this sense it may be called a revelation. It is
inspired by the spirit of truth: in the fourth book there are even some paragraphs
which may be dictated by the Holy Ghost.”52
Despite his own confidence, though, Schopenhauer’s work was seen as a failure; it gained recognition only in the 1850s – over thirty years after its original conception and publication. Similar to Schopenhauer, Tolstaya’s talents were largely overlooked by her contemporaries.
Interestingly, Schopenhauer defines the artist of genius in The World as Will and
Idea “not merely as a craft worker making decorative objects to amuse or entertain, but as what we would now consider to be a kind of existential hero, as well as victim engaged in
49 In a letter to Fet, Tolstoy compares his epilogue of War and Peace to the works and beliefs of Schopenhauer: “The main reason why I’m not afraid is that what I’ve written, especially in the epilogue, wasn’t invented by me, but painfully torn from my inside. There is further support in the fact that Schopenhauer in his [Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung] says the same thing as I do, approaching it from the other side.” Tolstoy, Tolstoy’s Letters, 221.
50 Tolstoy, My Life, 153.
51 Arthur Schopenhauer, Essays and Aphorisms, trans. R.J. Hollingdale (London: Penguin Books Ltd, 1970), 30.
52 Schopenhauer, Essays and Aphorisms, 31. Gillett 23 terrible struggles of passion and will.”53 This definition would apply fully to Tolstoy, but even more so to Tolstaya, as she had to endure a lifetime of suppressing her desire for a life of art. In the following passage written in a letter to Tolstoy (1864), she herself describes her struggles in suppressing her passion for music and the arts:
“Here I am sitting in your study, weeping as I write. I am weeping for my
happiness, for you, over your absence, remembering my past; weeping because
Mashen’ka has started playing something [on the piano], and her music, which I
haven’t heard for ages, at once lifted me out of my child-based world of diapers
and kids which for so long I have not taken a single step out of, and transported
me somewhere far away where everything is different. I’ve even become fearful,
since for a long time I’ve been stifling these chords within me, which were so
painfully sensitive at the sounds of music, at the sight of Nature and everything
you have not glimpsed in me, which has sometimes caused you annoyance. Yet at
this very moment I feel everything – and it is both painful and good…
I want to never again be aroused by that feeling, which is vital to you as a
poet and writer, but which is only painful to me as a mother and housewife, since
I cannot and dare not give into it…
Now I am listening to music, and my nerves are standing on end. I am
terribly in love with you. I see how beautifully the sun sets in your windows. And
Schubert’s melodies, to which I used to be so indifferent, are now stirring my
whole soul…
53 Dale Jacquette, The Philosophy of Schopenhauer (Canada: McGill-Queen, 2005), 146. Gillett 24
… Now they will be lighting the candles and calling me to nurse my baby.
I shall see how Seryozha has been getting himself dirty, and my whole mood will
pass in an instant, as if it had never been with me…”54
Although she tried to stifle her attraction to the arts, Tolstaya’s talents made their way into everything she did as can be seen in this powerful description of her ability to be moved by art and music. Her ability to articulate her feelings is comparable to the works that inspired her emotions in the first place. Tolstaya’s artistic legacy attests to how much she was able to accomplish, despite her devotion to her family. Her works of photography, painting, and prose have yet to be discussed and deserve close examination.
The story of her life has not been told in full.
Conclusion
In her memoirs, while reflecting on her life with her great husband, Tolstaya concluded:
“All of my life, I have really repressed all my talents for [Tolstoy’s] sake, and I
have sacrificed my whole life for the sake of the family. But this has been my
calling, my destiny, my purpose in life. To put it another and better way: it has
been the will of God.”55
Beyond doubt, Sophia Tolstaya provided an ideal environment for Tolstoy to work in.
Her vows to become an even better nursemaid of his talents allowed him to work effectively in his own home, the only place where he claimed he could write. But she did more than provide him with an ideal workspace; her creativity heightened his own.
Tolstaya should not be seen as someone who is defined by Tolstoy, but rather, someone who has helped define him, his legacy, and his work. Her talents for writing and the arts
54 Tolstoy, My Life, 113.
55 Tolstoy, My Life, 80. Gillett 25 have been overshadowed by those of her husband; but it was her efforts in co-creating with Tolstoy that were absolutely essential to his literary success. Thus, Tolstoy’s work should be seen as the fruit of their combined efforts, and Tolstaya should be recognized as a figure of co-creativity.
Gillett 26
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