THE LAST PERIOD
The last and most painful period of Leo Nikolaevitch's life at
Yasnaya Polyana began in June 1910, when, on a visit at my summer
bungalow at Meshtcherskoe, in the province of Moscow, he was suddenly
summoned back to Yasnaya Polyana by a telegram from Sofya Andreyevna,
informing him of her sudden illness; as it afterwards turned out, a
sham one.
On his return to Yasnaya Polyana, Sofya Andreyevna surrounded his
life with new restrictions, finally depriving him of even the limited
share of personal freedom which he had until that time enjoyed. She
gave up respecting his hours of literary work, for which she had once
shown consideration, and by continually bursting in upon him and
making scenes, she made it impossible for him to devote himself to
the literary work in which he recognised his service to men. His
daily walks had become his sole recreation and solace, and now she
began to hinder him from going where he wished to go, and from
taking with him those whom he wanted to take. She insisted that he
should completely give up seeing those of his most intimate friends
whose supposed influence on him she feared.[18] Even inside the house
she subjected all his actions and conversations to a control which
was never relaxed, not disdaining even the most indelicate methods,
as, for instance, eavesdropping, with her shoes off at doors, and
altogether watching day and night over every action he took. As has
already been mentioned, she was demanding from him such an
authorisation for the disposal of his works as would give her the
power to take legal proceedings in connection with them, and to
retain the copyright over a prolonged period in the future.
Apprehensive of what he might write in his diary, she tried to
prevent his giving the manuscript books of his diary to anyone
whatever, even to those whom he charged with work of one sort or
another in connection with them, or in whose keeping he desired them
to be preserved for the sake of greater security. She secretly stole
from his pockets those very private diaries which he kept and carried
about with him during the most painful periods of his life and
scrupulously preserved from every human eye. Not only did she fail to
conceal from him and others her distrust and--terrible to say--hatred
for him, but openly in the hearing of all gave utterance to these
feelings and often expressed them to him in so harsh a form that it
brought on heart attacks and even fainting fits in him. She was
jealous, or pretended to be jealous, of some of his most intimate
friends, bound to him by the closest spiritual unity. In this
connection also she openly expressed to those about her, and to
outsiders and to Leo Nikolaevitch himself, such incredibly revolting
suspicions as the tongue cannot bring itself to repeat, thereby
reducing Leo Nikolaevitch almost to complete collapse and driving
him to lock all the doors of his room. And with all this she did
everything she could to prevent his going away from Yasnaya Polyana,
even for the briefest visits which might have enabled him to have at
least some rest from the atmosphere of his home, and to gain fresh
strength to endure further tortures.
All these requests and others similar to them Sofya Andreyevna did
not merely put in words before Leo Nikolaevitch, but if he refused,
tried by her whole behaviour to force him against his will to submit
to her.[19] For this purpose she resorted to simulated fits of
hysteria and madness, threatened to commit suicide, pretended that
she would swallow or had swallowed poison, ran half dressed out of
doors in the rain or snow or at night, making them search for her all
over the park, and running in to him at any time of the day or the
night, even when, utterly exhausted, he had dropped asleep, and
waking him up with the object of worrying the concessions she wanted
out of him. There is no recounting all the unutterably cruel means to
which she unhesitatingly resorted for the sake of forcibly compelling
him. And when the members of her family told her that she would kill
him by such conduct, she answered coldly that his soul had long been
dead for her and that she did not care for his body; and if she were
asked what she would do and how she would feel if he really did die
of her treatment, she would say, "I shall go at last to Italy; I have
never been there."
Leo Nikolaevitch for his part, so long as he thought it right to
remain with his wife, tried with strikingly touching meekness to
gratify all her wishes and to comply with all her demands which did
not run counter to his conscience. When he considered them
unreasonable, at first he refused, but as she obstinately insisted
and resorted to her usual methods, in the end he often gave way in
those cases also; at one time regarding her as quite insane, and
being apprehensive that in a moment of frenzy she really might do
herself some mischief.
He was only unhesitating in his resistance when his conscience told
him that he ought not to give way. Thus, in spite of all Sofya
Andreyevna's importunities and strategy, he made his will and did not
change it to the end; he did not give her the authority to take legal
proceedings; he did not hand over his diaries to her, but put them in
a place of safety (in the bank at Tula). But since what was most
necessary for her object was just that in which he found it
impossible to give way to her, it was precisely with these demands
that she persecuted him most. And so all his concessions, instead of
pacifying her, only encouraged her in more persistent importunities
and still more cruel means of oppression.
FOOTNOTES
[18] The members of Tolstoy's household who were most
intimate with him--Alexandra Lvovna Tolstoy, D. P. Makovitsky and
Varvara Mihailovna Feokritova--were convinced that Sofya Andreyevna's
hatred of me was a sham. This is proved, for instance, by the
following extract from Makovitsky's diary:
"While I was riding with Leo Nikolaevitch to-day, I was thinking of
Sofya Andreyevna's behaviour since June 24, and I came to the
conclusion that in reality she is not, and never has been, jealous of
Tchertkoff. She pretended to be jealous simply in order to separate
him from Leo Nikolaevitch, and prevent him from influencing Leo
Nikolaevitch; she thought it was due to Tchertkoff's influence that
Leo Nikolaevitch wanted to give away his works to the public....
"And how well she played the part and deceived L. N., Tchertkoff,
Tatyana Lvovna, and me (we were all convinced that she was jealous of
Tchertkoff). I spoke of this to-day, and Varvara Mihailovna and
Alexandra Lvovna answered that they had noticed the same thing long
ago (that is, that there was no jealousy), and had put it down in
their diaries" (October 13, 1910).
[19] D. P. Makovitsky records the following incident:
"The day before yesterday she made a scene again: fell at Leo
Nikolaevitch's feet and begged him to give her the keys of the safe
in the bank where his diaries or the will were kept. Leo Nikolaevitch
said that he could not do it and went out. As he passed under her
windows Sofya Andreyevna leaned out and cried, 'I have taken opium.'
Leo Nikolaevitch rushed upstairs to her, but she met him with the
words, 'That was not true, I did not take any.' This scene upset Leo
Nikolaevitch very much, and he said to Sofya Andreyevna, 'You are
doing all you can to make me leave home.' After this he had
palpitations and almost fainted. He had attempted to run up the
stairs, and during those moments of terror and agitation was living
through his wife's death" (July 19, 1910)